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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28187103">Don't Deny the Animal</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sierra_Sitruc/pseuds/Poppy%20Pelican'>Poppy Pelican (Sierra_Sitruc)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Poppy's Trash A/B/O Series [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood &amp; Manga</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Dominant Roy Mustang, F/M, Idiots in Love, Knotting, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Self-Indulgent, Self-acceptance journey, Shameless Smut, Slow Burn, Smut, The Author Regrets Everything, inappropriate use of alchemy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:41:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>28,761</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28187103</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sierra_Sitruc/pseuds/Poppy%20Pelican</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Riza has trouble asking for help.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rebecca Catalina/Jean Havoc, Riza Hawkeye/Roy Mustang</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Poppy's Trash A/B/O Series [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2087337</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>141</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Don't Deny the Animal</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Oh my god, why did I write this. My embarrassing one shot became a BEAST. If you don't know anything about A/B/O stuff, just turn away now. Don't fall into this filthy trope. And if you do know this trope, I tried to make things very consensual for my own conscience.</p><p>AND I wanted to make sure you know that nothing underage happens between Riza and Roy, and eventually we find out very clearly how Roy felt about it, but because all of this is in Riza's POV, I thought I'd add the note so no one gets squicked.</p><p>And thank you dragonifyoudare for being my beta and reading this trash and making it...less trashy. She could only do so much, folks. I fiddled with it since she looked at it, so the mistakes you find now would be my own. :P </p><p>Credit to Maroon 5's <i>Animal</i> for the title (and inspiration for smut).</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Riza was ten when Roy Mustang started taking lessons in alchemy with her father. Mustang was fourteen and hadn’t presented yet. Presentations were a subject Riza had been told they would study in school the next year, so she only knew what she had picked up from comments by adults around the village. She heard the grocer gossiping about how Berthold Hawkeye was a strange alpha who suppressed his designation with alchemy—an uncommon thing for alphas in their village, apparently. Riza didn’t understand the suppressing part. To her, he was every bit the typical alpha. He was strong and fierce, a protector and provider.</p><p>The village was nosy about Mustang. He was brilliant, handsome, and most importantly, new. There was a lot of speculation on if he would present as an alpha or not, considering everyone knew all the best alchemists were usually alphas. And apparently Mustang was at the perfect age for presenting, whatever that meant, and the whole village was anticipating it fervently, having nothing more interesting to gossip about.</p><p>One of those weekends when Mustang went home to his aunt in the city, Riza finally got the nerve to ask her father about it.</p><p>“What’s so important about presenting?”</p><p>Her father gave her a hard look that made Riza tug at her skirt and blouse to make sure she looked her best. She’d been playing with the barn kittens at the neighbor’s earlier and she was covered in cat hair, even though she was a bit allergic.</p><p>“It’s not important unless you’re an ignorant ass,” her father said gruffly. “More than half of the population doesn’t present.”</p><p>“Everyone thinks Mustang will.” She blushed as her father lost his gruffness and laughed. He rarely laughed. It was startling.</p><p>“The gossips in this town need something else to feed on.” He paused. “It’s rude to talk about designations in public like that.”</p><p>And that was the end of the conversation, even though Riza had a dozen more questions about it. What would happen to Mustang if he presented as an alpha? Would Riza present one day, too?</p><p>Being ten years old and curious, Riza went to the next best convenient source: Mustang. After all, if she asked him at home, it wasn’t in public.</p><p>She found him when she arrived home from school during a rare break, eating from a plate heaped with more food than Riza could eat in a day.</p><p>“Is that an early dinner?” she asked, eyeing the overindulgence of sweets with suspicion.</p><p>He bashfully admitted it was not, but offered her a piece of a caramel bun. “I’m going through a growth spurt—or something,” he said. “My aunt said she’d send more money for boarding me, so I don’t eat you out of house and home.” He moved onto an apple, which he ate all the flesh from except for the tiniest bit of core.</p><p>Then Riza connected something. The nosy grocer, Mustang buying lots of food, all the conjecture about his designation, and the way he had added “or something,” to his explanation for his appetite.</p><p>“Father eats a lot, too,” she said, almost accusingly. Maybe it was an alpha thing?</p><p>Mustang shrugged. “Most men do.”</p><p>So maybe not.</p><p>She finished the bun he’d given her and excused herself, too embarrassed to ask what she really wanted to. She took the coward’s way out.</p><p>Just as she passed behind Mustang, he suddenly whirled around, dropping his second apple half eaten onto the table. Her heart thudded in her chest as he fixed her with a dark look. Had she done something wrong?</p><p>“Are you wearing perfume?” he asked.</p><p>She snorted. “Father says I’m not old enough. Do I stink?”</p><p>He wrinkled his nose, but said, “No.”</p><p>Still, once she was safely in her room, she did a sniff check to be sure, and took an extra thorough shower that night.</p><p>The next day when Riza arrived home from school, she was stomping through the overgrown yard, feeling pleased with herself for crushing most of the boys in her class during a rope climbing lesson, when she smelled something odd in the air. It wasn't food or perfume. She was certain it was organic—without understanding how she was so certain. Drawn to it by both instinct and curiosity, she followed the scent into the house and up the stairs until she arrived outside Mustang’s room.</p><p>From inside, she heard a pained whimper.</p><p>“Are you okay?” she asked.</p><p>There was no answer. She inhaled that scent again. It was calling to her. He needed help, though she didn’t know what kind. He whined pitifully and it went right to her heart.</p><p>“Alpha?” she whispered. She put her hand on the doorknob.</p><p>“Riza!” her father hissed, “Get over here!” She leapt away like she’d been burned. It was the <em>alpha</em> <em>voice</em>, as her mother used to call it. He rarely used it, but when he did, she was eager to obey. But no, he wasn’t <em>her</em> alpha, Mustang was. She took a step forward back to the door, sure her father would understand—</p><p>Before she could reach the door, her father picked her up by the middle and carried her out of the house in a run.</p><p>“You’re going to stay at the neighbor’s for a week.”</p><p>“Alpha needs me!” she said stubbornly. “He’s hurting!”</p><p>“You’re a child!” he yelled, incredulous. “Your mother would—god, you can’t—you are both much too young for this,” he dropped to a mutter by the end, unable to look at her.</p><p>“He sounded hurt!”</p><p>“He’s not hurt. Not really. I promise.” He wouldn’t look her in the eye.</p><p>It was like all her logic had been squashed to the back of her mind. She was supposed to listen to her father, but she also knew her instincts were calling her to help her alpha.</p><p>Her eyes watered at the thought of leaving him.</p><p>“Take some deep breaths and clear out the smell. It will help,” he said, still not looking at her. “I was calling to see if Mrs. Donovan could take you for the week when you arrived home. You weren’t meant to step foot in the house at all.”</p><p>“Why not?” she asked, already feeling clearer headed into the fresh air. She was also mortified. Even as sheltered as she was, she knew “alpha” was a romantic thing. Her mother had called her father that, especially when she was asking for something. It had always worked. The word had just come so naturally to Riza’s tongue.</p><p>“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” he said dismissively. “I’m going to go get your things. Don’t come into the house.”</p><p>This time she chose to obey the urgency of the alpha command. She wilted, shuffling over to a rusted bench at the edge of the yard.</p><p>As they walked to Mrs. Donovan’s farm, the one with the barn full of kittens, Riza felt more and more like herself, although her worry remained.</p><p>“Are you sure he’s okay to be by himself?”</p><p>“Yes. It will be better for him if you aren’t in the house.” Riza slumped. “His aunt actually asked if he could stay here, thinking it would be better for him than at her place around all those women.” Her father chortled to himself, but it was humorless.</p><p>In Mrs. Donovan’s kitchen, the adults began to have a conversation about Riza like she wasn’t even there. She wanted to go disappear to the barn with the kittens, but she felt like she couldn’t excuse herself until after her father left.</p><p>“She’s much too young to present, but it sounds like she might be close,” Mrs. Donovan said, nostrils flaring.</p><p>“Do you think it can be held off?”</p><p>“Probably. With the stimulus removed. And a blocker.” She clicked her tongue.</p><p>“I didn’t think this was possible. She only smelled him through the door.” Riza got some satisfaction that her father had probably spoken more about non-alchemy things today than he had all year, even if it was about Riza’s body doing things she couldn’t control. Things she hated and felt weirdly ashamed of.</p><p>“Stranger things have happened,” Mrs. Donovan continued. “Maybe they’re compatible. That could trigger an early presentation, I think.”</p><p>Her father made a disgusted noise. “I’ll come check on her tonight. Thank you for the assistance.” He waved awkwardly to Riza, as if he didn’t know what to do with her now. Just one more thing to put distance between them. He left Riza still clutching the bag he’d packed for her.</p><p>“It’ll be fine, dear,” Mrs. Donovan said, misinterpreting Riza’s nervous expression. “You’re going to be such a pretty omega.”</p><p>“I will?” she squeaked, feeling something like dread bubbling up inside her. She knew her neighbor had only wanted to compliment her, but it didn’t put Riza at ease, not even a little. An <em>omega</em>? Of course. How had she not figured it out? Betas and other alphas certainly didn’t react to a newly presented alpha like she had.</p><p><em>Alpha</em>. She wondered how Mustang was doing. And what he was doing. She’d heard some talk on the playground at school, but she had no idea what a rut was. She’d only gotten the idea it was both good and bad, and it happened during an alpha’s presentation. According to the dictionary in her father’s library, it had something to do with breeding, another word she had needed to look up. She’d decided to just wait until they studied it at school because it was too difficult to make sense of on her own.</p><p>It wasn’t until she finally escaped to the Donovan barn, back to the sweet kittens that climbed up her legs and burrowed into her shoulder to purr, that she remembered something she’d heard about omegas in relation to an alpha’s rut.</p><p>An alpha went into rut, but an omega went into heat. And she’d heard Mrs. Donovan complain about the female cats going into heat before, yowling and kicking up a fuss. She knew it had something to do with having kittens, although the specifics were vague.</p><p>With horror, Riza realized as an omega that would somehow apply to <em>her</em>. It sounded terrible. She’d heard Mustang, miserable in his room, and she’d heard omegas had it worse. More pain, whatever kind it was. And while she knew her mother had been an omega, there weren’t very many in the village now. None that Riza really knew of, anyway.</p><p>That night, when her father walked to the Donovan farm to check on her, he also brought an envelope. He told her to open it after he went home.</p><p>Inside was a note in her father’s shaky scrawl that said, “Suppressing your biology can guarantee you think with a clear head, and while you are only a child, it’s still your body. If you wish to suppress your omega instincts, wear this at all times. Never remove it for more than an hour over a twenty-four-hour period. I would like you to wear it, but it’s up to you.”</p><p>Wedged in the corner of the envelope was a silver necklace with an array engraved on a disc no bigger than a coin. Riza knew it well. It was a lot like the one her father wore, except this one had a brand-new shine to it.</p><p>She weighed the necklace in her palm for a moment, and even just that little amount of skin contact sent goosebumps across her body, wrapping her in a protective shield. It was a little unpleasant, like she’d cut off a sense she didn’t even know she had, but all it took was remembering the pathetic yowls of the barn cats and she decided she could handle it.</p><p>After hooking the necklace on, she tucked it under her shirt and went to bed.</p><p>It was almost a week before she was allowed back home. Mrs. Donovan came with her, and while Riza didn’t quite know why, she felt like a bug under a microscope.</p><p>When she walked into the kitchen, it became even more obvious. Her father and Mustang sat at the table, and Mustang was pretending to read a book, ears bright red. He barely acknowledged her except for a nod.</p><p>She gritted out a brief hello and answered her father’s questions about how her latest exam had gone. He kept looking between her and Mustang until finally he seemed satisfied with something and let her go up to her room.</p><p>It wasn’t until her embarrassment faded that she realized she hadn’t been able to smell Mustang’s rich scent again. Maybe the whole omega thing would be manageable after all.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>Whatever powerful alchemy her father put into Riza’s necklace, it kept her from teetering into an early presentation. The next year in school she learned that premature presentations were both painful and dangerous, so she methodically wore the necklace every day, only removing it when she showered or went swimming, but never for longer than an hour in a day.</p><p>She also discovered her father had made a necklace for Mustang, too. She wanted to ask him about it, if her father forced him to wear it, but it was too personal a question for someone she only spoke to at dinner. Sometimes even then her father and his student forgot she was there as they got carried away in discussions of alchemy.</p><p>#</p><p>At thirteen, her father sent her to the nurse in town to “discuss womanly things,” and left it at that. The nurse was a woman in her fifties and was the same nurse the school had brought in to talk to the class about designations.</p><p>Riza brought a list of questions, written in her best penmanship, and the nurse patiently answered each one. Not having a mother or even an aunt to ask, Riza didn’t want to forget anything.</p><p>Once the nurse finished explaining how to handle your period if it started in your sleep—something Riza had been foolishly concerned about—Riza finally got the courage to ask a question she hadn’t put on her list.</p><p>She held up her necklace. “Can I still have a baby someday if I wear this?”</p><p>The nurse frowned at it. “You haven’t even had your first heat and you’re wearing that?”</p><p>“I almost had a premature presentation,” she explained in a rush, fastidiously studying her fingernails.</p><p>“Oh. Was there…an alpha who triggered it?” the nurse asked, furrowing her brow.</p><p>“Uh...” She was reminded fuzzily of her alpha whining on the other side of a door, his scent thick in her nose. No, she corrected herself. Not her alpha. Just Mustang. “I guess so.”</p><p>“Are you still around him?” she asked.</p><p>“It shouldn’t matter if I have this, right?” She pressed the necklace into her skin. “And he has one now, too.” He wore it always. She saw him wearing it one day at the pond, swimming with some of the other teenagers. He didn’t seem worried about it getting wet like Riza did.</p><p>The nurse went quiet as she considered it.</p><p>“Well, yes, you can still have babies if you wish, far in the future.”</p><p>Riza nodded. She wasn’t sure she wanted babies, but it seemed like something she should know.</p><p>“As for wearing that now, before your first heat, it’s unusual but it <em>should</em> be fine. I’ve never seen an omega wearing one before presentation.”</p><p>“So…I still have to have a heat?” Riza filled with panic. What was the point of this stupid necklace if she still had to suffer through the worst part of being an omega?</p><p>“Yes. It’s healthy and normal, but your pheromones will be blocked, so it won’t last long. Just a day, rather than three.”</p><p>“A whole day?” She wanted to cry.</p><p>“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, honey,” the nurse said, pulling out a pamphlet for her. “Being an omega is a privilege, really. I know plenty of betas who would kill to be an omega. A heat is scary at first, but once you’re older, well—” The nurse shrugged. “You’ll be fine.”</p><p>“How often will I have…a heat? Wearing this?”</p><p>“The same as without. Probably six times a year.”</p><p>“And—is there a way to hide it?” She thought of Mustang trying to study while she yowled like a cat in her bedroom. She would die of humiliation.</p><p>“Oh, with that on, no one will notice except you, as long as you have some place private to go!” the nurse reassured her with a laugh. “It will still work as it always does, but it’s not strong enough to block a heat. Your biology can only be suppressed to a certain point.”</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>Riza walked home from the appointment with a bag of samples and pamphlets, wishing her mother was around to ask. Her mother had been an omega, too. She would know exactly how to help. She wondered if her mother ever wished she could be a beta like Riza did. Because she did wish for it, almost every day. Betas didn’t have to worry about complicated biology. It was simple.</p><p>The next few months, Riza was on high alert for her heat. The pamphlet had a long list of warning signs, so she wouldn’t be caught unaware. The downside of being an anxious girl without a mother, however, was that Riza was convinced she was going into heat roughly twice a week.</p><p>If her father or Mustang noticed her erratic behavior—hiding in her room, skipping meals, and generally not speaking to anyone—they didn’t say anything about it. She assumed they didn’t notice, until one night she was hidden away in her room, pretending to study but instead reading a novel she’d borrowed from the library, and Mustang knocked on her door.</p><p>She told him to come in, and he entered holding up a plate.</p><p>“You missed dinner again,” it was accusatory.</p><p>“Oh, I got…distracted,” she said. Not entirely untrue.</p><p>“Maybe you’re more like Master Hawkeye than I thought.”</p><p>That rankled. Riza hated when her father got in those moods, hunched over his desk lost in research. Sometimes the mood lasted for months at a time.</p><p>“I’m not like that.”</p><p>“But are you hungry? Or should I eat this? I happen to love roast potatoes—”</p><p>Riza eyed the plate, her stomach rumbling. Right. She was hungry.</p><p>“I can get food for myself. If you’re hungry, you can have it,” she said.</p><p>Mustang set the plate beside her on the bed. “I was just teasing. I brought it up for you. I probably ate a pound of potatoes by myself already.”</p><p>Riza put the plate in her lap.</p><p>Alpha wanted to take care of her, her stupid hindbrain whispered. Part of her wanted to positively preen, even though she had no desire to actually do so. It was just Mustang being kind.</p><p>“Thank you,” <em>alpha</em>, she almost added.</p><p>“You’re welcome.” The smile he gave her was so genuine—and handsome. How had she never noticed how good he looked? She’d heard the other girls talk about him, especially the older girls at school, but—</p><p>She was grateful when he left because she was having one of those terribly awkward signs from the pamphlet and she was going to die if her heat started while Mustang was in her room. Why did omegas have to be so <em>wet</em>? Betas had sex just fine without the excess of natural lubricant.</p><p>She waited for an hour, but once again, nothing. Just another false alarm. Still, Riza’s heart thudded in her chest as she tried to sleep, thinking of Mustang bringing her dinner, and lingering on the image of his smile. Disgusted with herself, she vowed to make sure she did a better job going to dinner, so it never happened again.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>It was entirely unexpected when Mustang brought a girlfriend by the house. Mostly because why would anyone want to visit the Hawkeye place? Apparently, Dahlia Schumacher did. She was the same age as Mustang, and very beautiful with red curly hair and dark blue eyes, and she actually had proper curves like a woman should. Unlike Riza, who was still all straight lines.</p><p>She was also a beta, but she teasingly called Mustang, “Alpha,” when she thought Riza wasn’t listening.</p><p>When Riza’s father came down, Mustang introduced her politely, and Riza expected her father to send the girlfriend out the door. Clearly she was a distraction from Mustang’s studies.</p><p>But her traitor of a father said it was fine, and maybe they’d be more comfortable in Mustang’s room where a young girl wouldn’t be underfoot.</p><p>After Mustang and Dahlia disappeared upstairs, Riza found her courage and asked, “So when I get a boyfriend, can he visit in my room?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>Riza scowled. “That’s not fair.”</p><p>“He’s a young alpha. They have—needs.”</p><p>“But a young omega doesn’t?” she countered, feeling bold—and unusually irritated.</p><p>He paused, at a loss for words in the face of a logical question. “Just do what other teenagers do and hide it from me, all right?” he said abruptly before retreating to his study.</p><p>Riza waited in the kitchen, choosing to do her homework there rather than go to her bedroom, avoiding being anywhere near…whatever was happening upstairs in Mustang’s room. She just wanted to go to bed. She was getting a stomachache or something, and the kitchen was uncomfortably hot.</p><p>Mustang eventually emerged to escort Dahlia home, and Riza trudged up the stairs, her irritation growing. Then she caught the scent of something amazing—a rich, spicy fragrance. It was like a switch flipped and logical Riza was gone.</p><p><em>Alpha</em>. Her alpha.</p><p>The next thing she knew, she had barged into Mustang’s room, unconcerned about the full body flush coursing through her. She was hunting for something—and she found it.</p><p>His bed. She crawled into the rumpled blankets like a cat, rubbing her face against his pillow and fighting the urge to take off all her clothes and roll in it. And then she noticed another one of the signs of heat, one she couldn’t ignore—it was even more noticeable than the time Mustang brought her dinner. Thick, clear liquid seeped down her thighs, slow but steady.</p><p><em>Oh, no</em>. Awareness returned.</p><p>She’d just been marking her scent all over his bed like an animal. She checked her necklace. It was still there. She wasn’t supposed to be able to smell him! And then she was hit by a cramp that felt like her body was tying her organs together.</p><p>Eyes watering, she looked frantically around, trying to figure out what to do. Mustang would be mad if she was in his room. She needed to leave, but the smell was—something. It helped.</p><p><em>Alpha won’t be mad</em>, that strange hindbrain whispered. <em>Alpha would make it better</em>.</p><p>Nope. That wasn’t good.</p><p>Unable to part with the scent of him, but unable to stay, she stripped the blankets off the bed and carried them to her room. There were extras in the closet. He would just have to deal with it. This was urgent.</p><p>Panicking as the cramps worsened and her body began producing an abundance of messy <em>stuff</em> she didn’t want to think about, she began to cry. She didn’t care what anyone said, being an omega was not a privilege. This was the worst experience of her life.</p><p>She remembered in the pamphlet that some omegas would be compelled to make a nest.</p><p>“I am not doing that, ever,” Riza had scoffed.</p><p>And then she looked at her bed, which she had shoved into a corner and covered in blankets, Mustang’s proudly on top, and…oh. It was undoubtedly a nest. And she had to do this six times a year? Wiping her nose with a tissue, she turned off the light and crawled into her bed.</p><p>Snuffling into Mustang’s pillowcase helped take the edge off the pain a little, but the cramps came in terrible waves, and while the pamphlet explained various ways to help, she absolutely refused to try any of them. She only knew how to do some of them, and there was no way was she leaving the room for pain medication in this state.</p><p>She made a note to go to the library and read everything on omegas that she could. Surely she wasn’t the first girl in the world with a single father who had no idea what he was doing raising an omega daughter.</p><p>It was a while before she heard the front door, and she hunkered deeper in the blankets. She hoped Mustang didn’t try to find out what happened to all his bedding, because at this point, it was drenched from the various bodily fluids dripping from her, and he wasn’t getting them back. Maybe ever.</p><p>Then there was the distinct sound of footsteps, hurrying up the stairs. Running. Her heart pounded in her ears as she heard him reach the landing, then walk right past his room.</p><p>He knocked on her door.</p><p>“Riza?” he asked, voice full of concern.</p><p>She was too afraid to answer. She trembled under the blankets, tucking her knees to her chest, even as she wanted to shout at him to come and help. He wasn’t supposed to <em>know</em>, the nurse said.</p><p>“I’m opening the door, so if you aren’t—”</p><p>“Don’t come in!” she yelped.</p><p>She heard a frustrated growl, then, “Omega,” he crooned sweetly. “I won’t hurt you. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”</p><p>She burst into a fresh round of tears, throat too swollen to answer.</p><p>Mustang let the door creak open slowly. She stayed hidden under her blankets. His blanket. More shame arrested her. Now he would know <em>everything</em>.</p><p>“Aren’t you wearing your blocker?” he asked. She heard him take a loud, steadying breath. So he could smell her, just like she could smell him. Now that he was in the room it took every ounce of self-control not to go and shove her nose into his skin. Why did he smell so <em>good</em>? It was unreal.</p><p>“I am,” she croaked. “Are you wearing yours?”</p><p>“Uh, yeah.” He cleared his throat. “You can smell me?”</p><p>“Alpha,” she whined, as a cramp rolled through again.</p><p>He shuffled closer. “What do you need?”</p><p>“I don’t know. It hurts. And that stupid pamphlet—it has all these scary things to try, and I’m not ready to try them.”</p><p>“Do you need a hot water bottle? Anything to drink?” he asked, sounding almost as distressed as she did. It was odd. “Maybe some pain medication? Have you had any?”</p><p>“I haven’t left my room. I’m just—scared.”</p><p>“I know. I could smell your fear all the way downstairs,” he said bluntly. “But I’ll help you. It will be all right.”</p><p>His words were soothing. Even if she didn’t believe him entirely, her instincts did. She sucked in a deep breath of his scent.</p><p>“Don’t tell my father, please? I think he’s asleep and I don’t think I can look at him tomorrow if...”</p><p>“Understood.”</p><p>When he returned, she finally peered out from under the blanket. He brought a whole basket of food, pain medication, and a pitcher of water.</p><p>“I had no idea what I was doing, full disclosure,” he said, laughing at himself. “I probably got too much.”</p><p>“Thank you. It’s probably fine.” She had no idea either, after all. Then he held up a pill for her and some water, then the hot water bottle. <em>Alpha was taking care of her.</em></p><p>“Some of my foster sisters are omegas. Obviously, they try to get help...of a different kind, but they’ve mentioned what they like.”</p><p>She nodded, wanting to go back to hiding in her—how stupid—nest, but she was also hot and sweaty. Her sense of self-preservation wanted to drag Mustang into her bed with her so she could smell him and have him say what a good nest she made, but it also wanted him to leave so she could suffer without an audience.</p><p>“You can go,” she said. “I feel better now.”</p><p>“Right. Yes. I’m just—trying to tell my alpha brain to shut up.” His brow furrowed as he looked at the blankets on her bed. “Are these from my bed?” He was confused, but pleased? She wasn’t sure.</p><p>“Yes,” she said. “I—I needed them. Sorry.”</p><p>He grinned. So he <em>was</em> pleased. “Need anything else that smells like me?”</p><p>“You don’t have to—”</p><p>“Oh, no, my hindbrain is ready to give you my whole wardrobe.” He chuckled. “They aren’t kidding about what they say omega pheromones are like. I think your father has the right idea about blockers.”</p><p>“Why <em>can</em> we still smell each other?”</p><p>“Probably living together makes it work less?” He looked incredibly uncomfortable. “We don’t usually smell each other, so could just be...when it’s strongest?” Like her heat. And his ruts. Which he had been very careful about since the first time, as far as she knew. Riza hadn’t smelled him again until today.</p><p>Another cramp rolled through and she curled up in a ball under the blanket. She hissed through clenched teeth and started to cry again.</p><p>“I wish I wasn’t an omega. I hate this.”</p><p>“It won’t always be this bad,” he said gently. “Heats get easier. And one day they’ll be something you look forward to, if my sisters are anything to go by.”</p><p>“That doesn’t help me right now.”</p><p>“No. I felt that way when I presented, too. It gets better. The first time is the hardest.”</p><p>“I really hope so.”</p><p>“I don’t want to overstep, but maybe it would help if I was closer?” His eyes stayed firmly on the floor.</p><p><em>Yes, yes, yes,</em> her hindbrain trilled. The other half of her was aware of the stickiness between her legs she was trying to hide. It had soaked through her pants, maybe even to the bed. But...his blanket was thick enough.</p><p>“You could come...lay on the bed with me. Above the blanket.”</p><p>“Of course,” he said, moving so quickly she had hardly finished her sentence before he joined her on her narrow twin bed. She wormed her way to the wall, wanting some distance even as her hindbrain suggested pressing their skin together. He settled on the opposite side, facing her.</p><p>They inhaled each other in unison. She wondered if she smelled as good to him as he did to her. Disappointment crushed her when she saw him grimace.</p><p>“Is that better?” he asked.</p><p>“A little.” <em>Alpha was there. He would take care of her.</em></p><p>“Here. Give me your hand.” She untangled her hand from the blanket, and it was immediately enveloped in his larger one. A shudder went through her at the contact, instincts soothed for the moment.</p><p>She sighed contentedly. “Thank you. You don’t have to stay, but I appreciate it.”</p><p>“I really don’t mind,” he assured her again.</p><p>An awkward silence filled the space between them, and Mustang fumbled for something to talk about. He was the one with the glib tongue, so Riza let him figure it out.</p><p>“Let’s talk about something else,” he suggested. “Do you know what you want to do once you finish with school?”</p><p>Their conversation carried on, and somewhere along the way, with Riza sweltering under the blankets and crying off and on into the pillowcase that smelled like him, Mustang fell asleep mid-conversation. Still, just his presence—his scent—helped her feel a little calmer. She wasn’t alone.</p><p>In the morning, Mustang told her father she was sick, brought her a light breakfast, and came to check on her throughout the day during breaks from his studies.</p><p>Her father didn’t check on her once, which Riza tried not to be hurt about, but omega hormones sure made her emotional. She didn’t want her father to see her like this, but she supposed she wanted him to be concerned.</p><p>When the cramps finally stopped, it was late, and Riza picked up her bedding for the wash. And by the next day it was like nothing had happened to her. She was normal again. Afterward, Mustang never mentioned it, and neither did she.</p><p> Her next heat came two months later, but Mustang had joined the military by then, and Riza was alone. Knowing what to expect made it easier, but as she bit down on her lip to keep from crying, her body still craved <em>her</em> alpha.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>By the time Riza started at the military academy, she had learned to tolerate her designation, but <em>only</em> tolerate. It was at the academy she met Rebecca, the only other omega in the academy that Riza was aware of. Rebecca was very open and happy with it. She didn’t wear a blocker array, although she kept one on hand in case of emergencies, as was required for all military personnel who were designated as alpha or omega.</p><p>Riza preferred to keep her designation quiet. While it was only a stereotype, omegas were often seen as weaker and submissive, but this was only in comparison to their stronger, more demanding counterparts. Rebecca liked to flaunt her designation while kicking ass in target training because she wanted to change minds. But she had been raised by an omega mother to be proud of her designation and wield its power.</p><p>The military had record of their designations and had helpfully assigned Rebecca and Riza to be roommates in the dorms. They had also inspected Riza’s blocker array to make sure it was up to snuff. If it hadn’t been, they had ones on hand.</p><p>Rebecca made it her life’s mission to help Riza learn to enjoy her designation. One night she convinced Riza to meet another omega friend of hers who was in town, “to learn the pride of being an omega,” as Rebecca called it.</p><p>Lily was the opposite of what Riza expected.</p><p>“Now, I know it’s not all fun and games,” Lily said. She tossed back a shot and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “My first heat I got so dehydrated, I ended up in the hospital.”</p><p>“But the sexy alphas make up for all that,” Rebecca said, nodding vigorously at Lily, waiting for her to agree.</p><p>Lily winked. “Once you find a good one who knots you until you see stars.”</p><p>Rebecca giggled. “So you’ve had an alpha help you through?”</p><p>“Hmm, yes, an ex-boyfriend,” Lily said, lowering her voice. “I’m not sure I could ever settle for a beta after that.”</p><p>“It was that good?” Riza asked, skeptical.</p><p>“Oh yes. It was three days of sex and pillow talk. Of course, it was the pillow talk where I learned he was a bit of an idiot.” Lily laughed, unembarrassed. “I still call him up when we’re both single to help me through my heats. It’s just—so much better than my hands or medicating until I pass out. It feels…healthier.”</p><p>Riza couldn’t pretend it didn’t sound appealing. She hated treating her heats like an illness, but it’s what they felt like. She could do very little for herself except the barest tasks to survive.</p><p>“I tried with a beta ex of mine, too,” Rebecca confessed, although this Riza already knew. “It was better than nothing, but when I finally went out looking for an alpha heat hookup…I <em>did</em> see stars. More times than I could count.”</p><p>“I don’t think I could—with a stranger,” Riza said. She studied the leftover fizz from her third beer of the night. The alcohol was the only thing getting her through the intimate conversation, although Lily made it seem like they had known her for years with how easily she opened up about herself and her sexuality. Unlike Riza.</p><p>“What about an alpha you already know?” Rebecca asked.</p><p>Mustang came to mind immediately, though she hadn’t seen him since she was sixteen. Even then, he’d been such a good alpha. He’d taken care of everything for her father’s funeral, helped pack away her father’s study…</p><p>And she remembered his scent wrapped around her, huddled underneath a sweltering blanket as he brought her supplies and talked to her while she went through the most vulnerable moment of her life. She had felt safer with him there, undeniably, but now she was older. Her body and mind had caught up to one another, and she knew she would never be able to settle for so chaste a heat again with an alpha nearby. Especially him. And the things she begged the empty room for while she was suffering through her heats, the cravings…</p><p>No. She never wanted anyone to see her like that.</p><p>“I don’t think so. The one time I did have help—”</p><p>Rebecca’s jaw dropped. “What?”</p><p>“It wasn’t the traditional way,” she said hastily. She clutched her beer closer. And maybe because it <em>was</em> her third beer of the night, she continued. “My first heat happened while my father’s alchemy student was living with us. He was an alpha. I stole the blankets from his bed while he was out with his girlfriend.” She could joke about it now that she was older. She could see the absurdity in her younger self’s mortification.</p><p>“Riza!” Lily crowed.</p><p>“You are bad!” Rebecca said, almost spitting out her beer.</p><p>“He was really kind about it. He made sure I had enough to eat and drink. Nothing remotely sexual.” But it was the only time she’d let anyone around while she was in heat.</p><p>“I guess it’s true alphas really will bend over backwards for an omega in heat,” Lily said, smiling. “Did you two ever date?”</p><p>“No. It wasn’t like that.”</p><p>Rebecca poured herself more beer from the pitcher on their table, refilling Riza’s as well.</p><p>“If I were you,” Lily said, “next time my heat rolled around, I’d be calling him up.”</p><p>“I don’t think he’d be interested,” Riza said dismissively. “Besides, I don’t even know where he is now.” She had no plans to mention he was also in the military. Rebecca would never shut up about it.</p><p>“Well, we can find you another softy alpha like that, I’m sure,” Lily said. She looked around the bar, most of the men half drunk or all drunk. “Probably not here. I’ll double check on my way to the bathroom.”</p><p>“I have a question,” Rebecca asked as soon as Lily left. “Haven’t you had a blocker since before you presented? I thought you said that.”</p><p>“Yes. It was a…precaution.” Riza didn’t want to discuss that day when she was ten. Something about it always felt ugly, though she couldn’t pinpoint what.</p><p>“But it sounded like you could still smell that alpha alchemist. You stole his blankets.”</p><p>Riza flushed. She shouldn’t have mentioned that part. “Yes. As soon as my heat started, I could smell him.”</p><p>“And he could smell you, I bet.” Suddenly Rebecca didn’t seem very drunk anymore.</p><p>“Yes. Why do you ask?”</p><p>“Just sounds like maybe you and that alpha had a strong connection.”</p><p>“Hardly,” Riza said, but her omega brain scoffed.</p><p>“Maybe you should meet up with him. Take off your blocker array first. Wear a cute dress.”</p><p>Riza snorted. “I’m not going to do that.”</p><p>Rebecca was insistent. “Compatible alphas and omegas are as close to soulmates as you’re going to get in this world. One in a million chance of finding someone like that.”</p><p>Riza rolled her eyes, not wanting to lose herself to fantasy and myth. Biology didn’t dictate a strong relationship.</p><p>“I don’t think that was what happened.” Yes, he’d smelled delicious. Like being wrapped in a warm towel after a bath or walking into the shade on a hot day. But scent wasn’t everything.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>Years later, in another bar, Riza’s convictions on not having an alpha help her through a heat were tested once again.</p><p>“Do you think Havoc would want to help me through my next heat?” Rebecca asked, eyeing up the alpha with interest.</p><p>Usually when Mustang’s team went out for drinks, Riza had one beer and said goodnight. But this time she had bumped into Rebecca at the bar, and now Riza was beginning to think she was being unwittingly set up to act as her friend’s wing woman. She’d corralled Riza away from the men to their own table for a more private conversation.</p><p>“I think so,” Riza said. “When is it?”</p><p>“Next week,” Rebecca groaned. She was always searching for a good alpha, and the closer she got to her heat, the more eager she was. She’d had many, many heat hook-ups, and said it was totally worth the awkwardness of being knotted to a stranger just to avoid the challenges of heat. “I don’t know how you do them all on your own.”</p><p>“Probably because I don’t know what I’m missing,” Riza said.</p><p>“Ehh, maybe you had the right idea. I’m fucking dying for a good knot.”</p><p>“Havoc would be happy to help, I’m sure. He’s single.”</p><p>Rebecca hummed to herself, taking another peek at him. “Why aren’t you hitting that? Something I should know?”</p><p>“I don’t know, he just…” didn’t appeal to her like she thought an alpha should. “He’s not my type.”</p><p>“Every alpha should be your type, sweetie. When’s your heat? Have we turned into heat sisters yet?”</p><p>Riza laughed. “Getting close. Mine is in two weeks.”</p><p>“Maybe you should find some horny alpha to invite over for it.”</p><p>“Weren’t you just saying I had the right idea?”</p><p>“Maybe I want you to commiserate with me about needing a knot.”</p><p>“I can still do that.” Riza leaned closer to her friend. “Sometimes in the middle of heat I start compiling a list of men to call to help,” she confessed in a whisper.</p><p>“Was Havoc on the list?”</p><p>“Pretty much every alpha I’ve ever met was on it. Even Major Armstrong, and I suspect he’d crush me to death.”</p><p>Rebecca shook with laughter.</p><p>It was then Havoc sidled up to their table, his smile a little sloppy from drinking. “What are you girls giggling about?”</p><p>“Just omega things,” Rebecca said coyly as he sat down beside her.</p><p>Havoc’s expression turned flirtatious. “Ah, you must be lonely being the only omega stationed in East City.”</p><p>And before Riza could signal to her friend to shut it, Rebecca said, “Besides Riza, you mean?”</p><p>Havoc’s jaw dropped.</p><p>“Hawkeye? You?” He stared.</p><p>Rebecca cringed apologetically.</p><p>“It’s true,” Riza said, dismissive. “I prefer to keep it quiet. I wear a blocker.”</p><p>“I wouldn’t harass you about it,” he said. He looked away, and she felt like she’d genuinely hurt his feelings.</p><p>“It’s nothing personal. I didn’t even tell my last boyfriend.” A beta. He was terrible in bed, too. The thought of him helping her through a heat repulsed her. He was too selfish to be an omega’s lover.</p><p>“Does Mustang know?”</p><p>“He’s our commanding officer, of course he knows.”</p><p>“And haven’t you known Mustang since you were a kid?” Rebecca asked, not-so-innocently. Riza kicked her under the table.</p><p>She hadn’t foreseen Mustang’s rise to fame as the Flame Alchemist. Rebecca had read a blip about him in the newspaper and learned he was an alpha who studied with a reclusive alchemist named Hawkeye. From there, it had been easy for her to put together the story about Riza’s first heat and her father’s student.</p><p>“Okay, Catalina needs to come to all our nights out,” Havoc said. “I knew you knew him from before being assigned here, but I thought you met in the military. This is so much juicier.”</p><p>“He was my father’s alchemy student,” she said, wishing to change the subject. “Nothing juicy about it.”</p><p>Havoc looked to Rebecca. “Is that true?”</p><p>Rebecca knew she had reached the end of Riza’s patience and lied. “As far as I know.”</p><p>“I wonder if Mustang would share any good stuff.” Havoc sighed in disappointment.</p><p>Rebecca excused herself then, glancing at Havoc intentionally and fanning her face behind his back.</p><p>“What do you think of Rebecca?” Riza asked, once Rebecca was out of earshot.</p><p>Havoc beamed. “She likes me, huh?”</p><p>“She doesn’t like to spend her heats alone, and she’s due for one next week,” Riza said, not beating around the bush. She knew Rebecca wouldn’t mind. She had done this a couple times for her at the academy. It was another omega thing Riza disliked. As much as she sometimes wanted to ask for help during her heat, omegas were traditionally asked by the alpha. It felt <em>wrong</em> to ask. Weak.</p><p>“Really? That sounds…” Havoc trailed off, eyes glassy.</p><p>“I take it you are interested.”</p><p>“Hell yeah!”</p><p>Riza was pleased. Havoc was a good alpha, and he would take care of her friend like a gentleman.</p><p>“Have you ever helped an omega through a heat before?”</p><p>“A couple times.”</p><p>“If you hurt her, I’ll shoot you,” she said, before grabbing her beer to leave as Rebecca sauntered back over. Riza gave her a thumb’s up, leaving the pair to get to know each other.</p><p>Mustang was watching her as she turned toward the bar, so she joined him, hopping onto the stool next to his.</p><p>“What was all that about?” he asked, gesturing to where Rebecca and Havoc were now sitting very close together.</p><p>“Oh, Rebecca wanted me to see if Havoc would help her through her heat,” she blurted before she could stop herself. She could’ve just said she was setting them up for a date, not a heat hookup.  She took another sip of her beer to disguise how embarrassed it made her to discuss heats with Mustang. It was easier talking to Havoc about it than Mustang. Probably because she hadn’t stolen teenage Havoc’s blankets right off his bed and made a nest out of them like an animal. Riza had been glad the nesting thing had been a one-time urge, just that first heat and not since.</p><p>Mustang glanced over at Rebecca and Havoc again.</p><p>“That’s right. Catalina is an omega.”</p><p>“Havoc is a good alpha, right?” she asked, suddenly needing his approval.</p><p>“Why? You considering taking up his stud services next?” he teased.</p><p>“No, I’d rather be alone.” She held her beer tighter, checking out of the corner of her eye to see Rebecca and Havoc. It looked like Rebecca might be…licking his neck? Riza averted her gaze quickly.</p><p>Mustang sipped his whiskey. “That’s harsh. I’m sure Havoc isn’t that bad. He’s as good an alpha as you can find.”</p><p>“It’s more I don’t want <em>any</em> alpha near me,” she said.</p><p>“Why not?” he asked, and his voice was softer.</p><p>“I don’t want to be—like that,” vulnerable and needy, “in front of someone unless I really trust them.” She’d rather feel empty and lonely. Maybe part of her wanted to be punished, thinking of Ishval. It helped her get through heats, sometimes, imagining it as penance. She didn’t deserve a good alpha.</p><p>“If it helps, an alpha would feel vulnerable, too.” He looked down at his glass, and she imagined she could smell him. She licked her lips, searching for the taste of him in the air.</p><p>“Do you mean—because of—” She floundered, afraid to say, “knotting” in front of her superior officer. Even if it was Mustang.</p><p>“Just like omegas, it’s a struggle to fight instinct. An omega in heat really scrambles the brain.” He said it with a heavy dose of self-deprecation.</p><p>“You seemed so…put together. When we were kids.” She was sure her face was on fire, but that instinctive part of her wanted to make alpha feel better. </p><p>He seemed surprised she brought it up, and he gave a sheepish smile.</p><p>“Then I put on a good show. I was scared shitless. I didn’t want to help—the conventional way—so I felt useless. I think I’d be a terrible alpha if I ever helped an—” he cut himself off, clearing his throat uncomfortably.</p><p>Riza’s heart pounded as she processed what he had revealed. Her omega brain was offended he hadn’t wanted to help her the conventional way, even if she wouldn’t have wanted that back then either. But then she focused more on the other part. Had he really never helped another omega through a heat? And he thought he was a <em>bad</em> <em>alpha</em>. She was desperate to correct him.</p><p>“You were perfect,” she said, resisting the urge to put her hand on his arm to comfort him. “A good alpha. You didn’t take advantage, and you were so sweet. That’s how I remember it.”</p><p>His eyes were dark and wide when she finally braved looking at his face again.</p><p>“I don’t know if I ever really thanked you for that first time,” she continued. “I can’t imagine how awkward it was for you.”</p><p>“For me? A teenage boy barged into your room and demanded you let him help you.” He hid his face in his hands. “I probably traumatized you.”</p><p>“No, you were very helpful, alpha.” She flushed. “Sir,” she corrected.</p><p>“So you think I’m a good alpha?” he asked, voice low.</p><p>“You know you are.”</p><p>“Well, I don’t see you setting me up with your omega friend. Just Havoc.”</p><p>“Because Rebecca asked for him. Besides, you shouldn’t be missing any work when you’re so busy this month,” she said. And the idea of him with another omega twisted like a knife in her chest. “Rebecca doesn’t like to wear a blocker. They’ll be gone for at least three days.”</p><p>“Do <em>you</em> ever take your blocker off?” he asked. His eyes went to where he knew she wore it on a necklace.</p><p>“No. I’d rather not extend my suffering.”</p><p>He pressed his lips together. “Suffering?”</p><p><em>Alpha was worried</em>. “It’s fine, colonel,” she said, forcing herself to use his rank rather than his designation. “If it was really bad, I’d ask for help.” And he was at the top of her list of good alphas to call.</p><p>Then Rebecca appeared at her side, an eager Havoc trailing behind her.</p><p>“Good luck, dumbass,” she heard Mustang rib him as Rebecca explained they were leaving early. The intent was crystal clear.</p><p>“Have fun,” Riza said, raising her glass as they left. Breda and Falman, involved in a long game of pool, paused to clap with Fuery, who was watching the game from the sidelines. It wasn’t often one of them left with a woman, especially a military woman. Havoc and Rebecca hustled out the door laughing as the rest of the bar joined in on the applause.</p><p>Riza and Mustang grabbed a new round and joined Fuery as spectators of the pool game. It was after midnight by the time the game was settled, and Mustang was out only a little money for betting on Falman.</p><p>“Can I drive you home?” Mustang asked, as she was preparing to walk home. “I didn’t have much to drink.”  It was chilly and she hadn’t brought a jacket, but she worried how it would look if anyone other than their team saw her getting into his car so late at night.</p><p>“I can walk. It’s not that far.”</p><p>He grumbled under his breath and shrugged off his jacket. “At least wear this. You’ll freeze by the time you get home.” It <em>was </em>colder than usual for the season, so she shrugged the jacket on without a complaint.</p><p>“Thank you, colonel.”</p><p>As she walked briskly down the block, she tugged the jacket around her waist. It swallowed her up so that the collar brushed against her nose. She could smell hints of his expensive cologne and something rich and familiar. She wanted to rub her face all over it. It was a scent she only picked up on when she was close to her heat.</p><p>Her heartbeat stuttered. Her heat wasn’t due for a while, and yet the signs were there already. No wonder she had slipped up and called Mustang <em>alpha</em>.</p><p>Alarmed, Riza doubled her pace until she was doing a light jog back to her apartment. Her slight inebriation didn’t help, but she arrived home, locking the door behind her. Then she rushed around to prepare, already feeling the beginning of light cramps, and the unavoidable slick seeping between her legs.</p><p>She assembled water, snacks, and pain medication, while still wearing Mustang’s jacket. She cursed her luck. Her heat was never early. Ever since that first one, she’d never been surprised by a heat before. She blamed Rebecca for all the knotting talk.</p><p>And god, Riza wanted a knot.</p><p>She reached the point of her heat where she learned it was best to just give in, and this time her inner omega was delighted to have Mustang’s jacket that was saturated in his scent. It was comforting, reminding her of the only time an alpha helped her through the torture of a heat. She took off the jacket and spread it across her bed, then stripped down to just her bra and a comfortable sleeveless shirt.</p><p>But that wasn’t good enough. Her bed was too open, too cold…</p><p>She needed it to be cozier, safer.  With a groan, she realized the urge to nest had resurfaced after contentedly lying dormant all these years. Annoyed, she rearranged her bedding, lining pillows along the wall, folding and rolling blankets, until she was satisfied.</p><p>While she hadn’t grown to like her heats, she at least knew how to endure them as well as possible now that she was in her twenties. Pushing aside her shame, she snuggled deeply into the nest, right against Mustang’s jacket. Alpha’s jacket, alpha’s smell, <em>yes</em>, <em>yes</em>, <em>yes</em>. She wanted her alpha’s knot, stretching her and filling her so good, giving her body exactly what it needed—fucking her full of come.</p><p>Breathing in her alpha’s scent, she steeled herself and cupped her sex, hoping to ease the pain as best she could. Alone.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>By the time the last of the cramps and fever died down, Riza was no better than a wrung-out dishrag. Her bed was a sticky mess, her hair was sticking out in a hundred directions, and she was going to have to replace Mustang’s jacket. She’d done unspeakable things to it.</p><p>After finishing the exhausting task of cleaning up herself and her room, Riza made a proper breakfast. She grabbed the newspaper from outside her door only to realize she’d been in the throes of heat for longer than her usual twenty-four hours. It had been two days, and she was supposed to be at work in an hour. Her whole weekend had passed in a blur of crying, sleeping, and touching herself.</p><p>She truly hated being an omega.</p><p>Cursing, she grabbed her blocker array and studied it in the mirror. Nothing looked off about it, but maybe there was? Perhaps she’d ask the colonel about it. Her heat starting early and lasting longer couldn’t be a coincidence.</p><p>By the time she walked into the office, she pieced together a semblance of composure. Her uniform was regulation ready, not a hair out of place, but when she opened her mouth to greet Falman, nothing but a whisper came out.</p><p>“Are you sick?” he asked.</p><p>“Just strained my voice,” she whispered. She was accosted by memories of crying for her alpha, begging for a knot. No wonder her voice was trashed. “Don’t expect to hear much from me today.”</p><p> Falman nodded and then went fumbling through his desk drawers before he produced a packet of herbal tea. She took it gratefully, grabbed a clean mug from her own desk, and disappeared to fetch hot water.</p><p>On the way, she passed by Mustang heading toward the office.</p><p>“Good morning, lieutenant,” he said.</p><p>Careful of her overworked vocal cords, she merely nodded and kept walking until Mustang was suddenly in her path, inches away. He closed his eyes and sniffed, inhaling deeply.</p><p>Awash with tingles, Riza stood ramrod straight, unsure what to do. No one but Mustang had ever been able to smell her before, and only that once when she was a teenager as far as she knew.</p><p>When he opened his eyes again, his pupils were wide. “What happened?” he asked. “You smell like…”</p><p>She huffed. “I think my blocker isn’t working right.”</p><p>He stared, waiting expectantly for more.</p><p>“My heat came early and lasted the whole weekend,” she rasped.</p><p>“And you sound sick.”</p><p>“It’s an unfortunate side effect after my…long weekend.”</p><p>He sighed, and his hands twitched, but stayed at his sides.</p><p>“I should take a look at your blocker.”</p><p>“Thank you,” she said, straining her voice. “I’d rather not go to the designation department. They’ll just replace it, and it’s a little sentimental to me.”</p><p>“I could come by your place tonight? To look at it,” he offered.</p><p>Riza thought of the sticky blankets and strong scent of omega heat permeating her apartment. If he could smell her even now, it might be a bad idea to have him come over. It could trigger his rut. Although the idea of Mustang in a rut in her apartment was a little too enticing…</p><p>“Maybe I come to your place,” she suggested.</p><p>They settled their plans, and Riza returned to her mission to get tea.</p><p>Back at the office sipping her tea, a phone call came in while she was catching up on the weekly reports.</p><p>A groggy-sounding Havoc was on the other side.</p><p>“It’s Havoc,” he slurred. “I am taking heat leave. Rut leave. Whatever.”</p><p>“Rebecca went into heat?” she asked, catching Mustang’s attention. Two omegas starting heats so close together wasn’t completely unheard of, although it had never happened to Riza and Rebecca when they were at the academy.</p><p>“Yeah, unexpectedly. I can hopefully make it in tomorrow.”</p><p>“Alpha,” Rebecca’s voiced moaned in the background. She didn’t sound pained though. Not at <em>all</em>. And Riza sensed Rebecca had infused an omega request into it. Havoc would feel compelled to help her faster.</p><p>“Gotta go,” Havoc said, and promptly hung up.</p><p>“Havoc is taking rut leave,” Riza said, her voice still croaky, pulling out the paperwork for it.</p><p>“With Catalina?” Breda asked, clearly impressed. “I hope he’s staying hydrated. He’s been panting after her for months.”</p><p>Riza raised an eyebrow. “Really? I had no idea.”</p><p>“That’s because you are so focused on work,” Breda teased. “He’s been dropping hints for you to set them up.”</p><p>“I’ll try to pay more attention in the future. Any friends of mine <em>you’re</em> interested in?” she asked. She’d never thought of it before—because she was singularly focused on her job protecting Mustang and pushing his ambitions. But she worked with good men, and she had several female friends who were single and looking.</p><p>“No, but my buddy who works at the school on River Front has been asking about you.”</p><p>Riza felt like she’d fallen into one of Breda’s traps.</p><p>“Who?”</p><p>“Vinnie Knudsen. The tall guy who came to poker night a month ago?”</p><p>Riza surprisingly recalled him well. “The alpha?”</p><p>“I think so, yeah.” Breda was a beta and sometimes those things went right over his head, but she was fairly sure he, unlike Havoc, had guessed her designation.</p><p>Riza had never dated an alpha before. None had ever appealed to her like Mustang, but maybe she should take a risk. The echoes of Rebecca happily calling for her alpha were fresh in Riza’s mind, as well as the torture of her own lonely heat. It was one thing to be miserable for a day, but two days had been debilitating.</p><p>And Vinnie had been cute. Chestnut hair, blue eyes. Polite, too.</p><p>Her eyes darted to Mustang who was feigning disinterest by scribbling furiously in his alchemy journal.</p><p>“I guess you can give him my number,” she said with a shrug. Maybe next heat she would have someone she was allowed to call, who would be there as more than a friend. Even though her hindbrain was revolted at the thought of it being anyone but Mustang.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>After work, Riza worked on her laundry, including Mustang’s jacket. It about broke her heart to wash his scent away. Then she dressed in her civilian clothes and made her way to Mustang’s apartment on foot. The whole walk there her nerves grew. Perhaps because she was just coming down from an intense heat, but something felt off between them. She really hoped it was just a simple issue with her blocker and everything would go back to normal and return her focus to their goals.</p><p>Lost in nerves, she almost walked right past his building. A minute later she was inside his apartment, sitting on his couch looking over a selection of books scattered across the table. They were all related to blocker arrays.</p><p>Mustang sat down beside her, still in uniform.</p><p>“I’m not super familiar with the creation of a blocker array,” he said. Riza’s father had made his, too. “But I do have a few methods to test if it’s working. It’s possible you just had a reactive heat because of Rebecca.”</p><p>“Will it take long?”</p><p>“Depends how the first test goes.”</p><p>“What’s the first test?”</p><p>He reached under his uniform and pulled out the silver chain he kept his own blocker on. It was almost identical to hers.</p><p>“We trade. If yours is defective, I’ll probably notice within an hour or so. And you wear mine and see if you notice any differences. It should be effective right away.”</p><p>“But it’s not like it’s entirely broken,” she said. “No one has ever been able to smell me—except you. For whatever reason.” She blushed, remembering Mrs. Donovan’s theory long ago that Riza and Mustang were <em>compatible</em>. Rebecca had teased her about the same thing.</p><p>“Can you smell me right now?”</p><p>She closed her eyes and inhaled just like he done that morning. Yes, faintly, there was something rich and spicy. She leaned forward, following the scent to where it was strongest, right around the nape of his neck.</p><p>“<em>Alpha</em>,” she murmured, squeezing her thighs together as a gush of wet slick threatened to destroy her underwear.</p><p>Quick as lightning Mustang switched out their blockers, practically jumping to the other side of the couch once it was done.</p><p>Riza’s cheeks were hot. “I’m so sorry.”</p><p>“It’s fine—you just smelled like you were about to go into heat again. It got really strong.” He took a hesitant whiff of her again and covered his nose and mouth. “Still is.”</p><p>“Another heat is highly unlikely,” she said, both embarrassed and oddly defensive of her scent. He looked…disgusted. What truly frustrated her was that she could still smell him, which meant the problem was likely to be with <em>her</em>.</p><p>“I know what I smelled,” he said, equally defensive, cowering beneath his shirt.</p><p>“This isn’t exactly a new problem. Even when I was ten your scent really—” She stopped. “Well, you know what happened.”</p><p>“When you were ten? What are you talking about?” He looked genuinely baffled.</p><p>She couldn’t believe it.</p><p>“If you don’t remember, I’m not going to rehash that humiliating event.” She supposed he had more important things to worry about back then. Presenting as an alpha, learning alchemy with her eccentric father…his girlfriend.</p><p>He crossed his arms and stared her down.</p><p>“You hadn’t even presented when you were ten,” he said. “And considering I was there when you presented, I am confident in that.”</p><p>Riza lost some of her steam then, searching her old memories of that time. They had never spoken of it. Why would they? She assumed her father had told him.</p><p>“You really don’t know? About what happened when you presented?” she asked. Her ten-year-old self would have appreciated knowing that. She hadn’t been able to stand being in the same room as him for weeks.</p><p>“No,” he growled. “Now please tell me what I’m missing before I lose my mind.”</p><p>“It’s not a big deal. I’ll tell you once you settle down, <em>alpha</em>.” And at those words, his whole body relaxed into the couch, like she’d tranquilized him.</p><p>“I’m settled,” he said, folding his hands across his stomach. His shirt remained stretched above his nose.</p><p>She sighed, wishing she had a drink.</p><p>“It was when you presented.” His first rut. Knowing what she did now, as an adult, the story was even more uncomfortable. “I could smell you.” Back before she wore a blocker. Until now, she had to be in heat to smell him. And with all the spend an alpha can produce during a rut, the house had probably been thick with his scent.</p><p>“But you were <em>ten</em>.” His revulsion was powerful.</p><p>“You sound like my father did. He found me trying to barge into your room, babbling about helping you.”</p><p>Mustang grimaced. “You were a child.”</p><p>“I didn’t know what I was doing,” she said. Even when she had properly presented, she hadn’t known everything. Didn’t know much about sex or knotting. “My instincts just told me you needed me. My father had to carry me out of the house—you can imagine how awkward he was about it.” They both chuckled. Her father had never known what to do about his daughter’s designation, except to suppress it.</p><p>“I don’t remember much of that rut at all, to be honest. It was a miserable blur. And I didn’t smell you. I <em>would</em> remember that.</p><p>“I was just reacting to you. I wasn’t giving off much scent of my own. And obviously you were rather…occupied.”</p><p>“That’s one way of putting it.”</p><p>“Father made my blocker that night. He was worried I was about to present prematurely. He was probably right.”</p><p>“You were so skittish after I presented. I thought it was because you heard me—well,” he made a crude gesture.</p><p>Riza rolled her eyes. “I had no idea what that even was at the time. Father kept me…maybe a bit too sheltered.” Rebecca had taught her more about an omega’s needs than school or anyone else had.</p><p>“So you’ve been wearing this since you were ten.” Mustang tapped the blocker that now nestled against his skin. “Because of me?”</p><p>“More or less. You were the trigger. My father gave me the choice to wear it or not.”</p><p>He nodded. “Do you still smell me?”</p><p>“Yes.” She sighed, pressing the array against her skin. Even <em>it</em> smelled like him. “I’m worried why neither of the blockers seem to be working for me. I don’t usually smell you <em>after</em> a heat.” Just before.</p><p>A few times over the years she had randomly scented him. Maybe he had been close to rut, she didn’t know. He never took leave for it if he did. Ruts weren’t regular like heats were for omegas. They were triggered. The blockers kept them well under control. A rut could usually be suppressed completely—unless around an omega in heat, potentially.</p><p>Mustang plucked up one of the books from the table, skimming the index.</p><p>“This one had some theories about reactive heats.” He flipped open the book, still covering his nose.</p><p>Riza shifted closer to read it herself, and she felt guilty when he tensed up beside her. But then she inhaled and shuddered, more wetness gathering in her underwear.</p><p>She stood abruptly. “I should go,” she said, fighting off the shame of what her body did without her permission. And the fact that he could <em>smell</em> it. He knew.</p><p>“What? Why?” he asked, still comically hiding his nose under his shirt.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” she said. “I haven’t felt like this since—” she was fourteen and terrified of her first heat. Ten and lost to instinct.</p><p>“It’s okay. We’ll figure it out. Or do you want me to take you to a doctor?”</p><p>She chewed her lip, thinking of the kind nurse who had talked her through a lengthy list of questions so patiently. Maybe a medical opinion was the way to go. She could have Mustang double check the array, but right now it seemed like it was just her. A screwed-up omega.</p><p>“No. I think I’ll make an appointment tomorrow morning. It’s not an emergency.”</p><p>“If—if you’re sure.”</p><p>“Should we trade blockers back?” she asked, though she didn’t want to. This one smelled like <em>her</em> <em>alpha</em>, and the idea of him wearing hers made her omega side positively giddy.</p><p>Mustang shook his head. “Uh, no. No. I’ll keep it. Maybe until after you visit the doctor. If I find something’s acting up with it, I’ll let you know.”</p><p>“What if it—what if it stops working?” she wondered.</p><p>“Not a problem for me,” he said. He glanced away guiltily. “I only wear it when I know you’re going to be around.”</p><p>Riza was stunned. He had never mentioned this before.</p><p>“You don’t have to do that,” she said, breaking out in an embarrassed, cool sweat, her scent no doubt spiking. “I don’t expect you to wear it on my behalf—”</p><p>“Oh I’m not.” He flipped through the book in his lap, avidly dodging eye contact. “In any case, don’t worry about it. I don’t mind being a test subject.”</p><p>Riza wanted to ask more. What did he mean it wasn’t on her behalf? As she let herself out of his home, her omega side gnawed on an old insecurity that Riza didn’t like to dwell on. Did Mustang think she smelled bad? Logically, Riza suspected that was the case. It wasn’t uncommon. Rebecca said her ex-boyfriend began to smell more and more foul to her the longer they were together, but the ex continued to think Rebecca smelled wonderful. It had made their breakup very unpleasant for him.</p><p>Her mind summoned the image of Mustang covering his nose, backing away in horror. Even when he was an apprentice, he had never strictly stated she smelled good to him. Just that it was a powerful scent. Evidence piled up. The other night she’d learned he’d never helped an omega through a heat before, not counting the very innocent way he’d helped Riza through her first one. He said the alpha was vulnerable, too. Had he not liked helping her through her heat? Was that why he had never asked to help her again, even as a friend? Every two months her heat leave went across his desk, and every time he signed off on it without a word. Every time her omega side crumpled in rejection. The alpha was <em>supposed</em> to ask.</p><p>It was in that mindset, feeling rejected and embarrassed by her ideal alpha, Riza answered her phone shortly after arriving home. It was Vinnie Knudsen, Breda’s friend, asking to take her out sometime. She’d regretted giving Breda the go-ahead to give him her number earlier, but now she was grateful. Maybe she needed to give his scent a chance to improve upon further exposure. And after how terrible her heat went, it would be nice to have help.</p><p>She and Vinnie made a date for Friday.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>Dr. Renzetti was able to squeeze Riza in first thing in the morning. The office was busy as always. Dr. Renzetti was one of just a few doctors in East City who specialized in omega health, and she was the best. Riza checked in and strode straight to a corner seat in the waiting room, hiding how nervous she was behind a book.</p><p>She only ever came to the doctor for yearly checkups, not because of <em>omega</em> problems. She was dreading the uncomfortable conversation ahead, but she also wanted answers enough to suffer through it. It had to be done—like performing maintenance on her guns so they worked as they should.</p><p>When she was finally in an exam room with a nurse, Riza was ready to get it all over with and hurry to headquarters</p><p>“Your temperature is a little elevated,” the nurse said. “When was your last heat?”</p><p>“It started Friday night. Unexpectedly. And lasted twice as long as usual.” Riza could not keep the bitterness from her tone.</p><p>“Did you have an alpha helping you out? Or any partner?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>The nurse frowned. “That must have been difficult. Breakthrough heats are usually more painful without help.”</p><p>Riza sighed. “I know that now.”</p><p>“And if your temperature is elevated, well…I’ll let the doctor know. It’s a good thing you came in.”</p><p>The nurse left, leaving Riza more unsettled than when she arrived, and then she had to wait for the doctor while stewing about having her heats become longer and longer because her body couldn’t get it together.</p><p>Finally, Dr. Renzetti arrived. She wore a friendly smile, though her eyes looked tired.</p><p>“Riza, so lovely to see you again,” she greeted. She carried a clipboard and a pen. “I hear you have heat issues?”</p><p>Riza repeated back what she had told the nurse, adding in that her blocker had always kept it to a single-day event.</p><p>“And how long have you been wearing a blocker?”</p><p>“Since I was ten.” Although not this particular one, she didn’t bother to add. The metal still smelled faintly of Mustang.</p><p>“Ten? That’s quite young.”</p><p>Riza stiffened as she realized she would have to retell the story again, even with the wounds still raw from enlightening Mustang about it the night before.</p><p>Gathering her courage, she forged ahead. Dr. Renzetti nodded along as Riza explained as briefly as she could, occasionally asking for clarification.</p><p>“So this alpha you knew when you were younger almost sent you into a premature presentation. But you weren’t in a relationship with him?”</p><p>“No. Just a distant friendship.” Maybe she’d had a bit of a crush on him, but she was a young girl. It was part of becoming a teenager.</p><p>“But he could smell you, too?” the doctor seemed baffled by this. “Both of you wearing blockers and smelling each other—it’s unusual, I won’t lie.”</p><p>Riza shrugged. “How many non-family alphas and omegas live together?”</p><p>“A very good point. Proximity has certainly been known to cause heat and rut issues, even with blockers. Having an early history with this makes me think it could be something similar again.” Dr. Renzetti studied her notes. “You’re in the military, right?”</p><p>“Yes.” Riza had dressed in civilian clothes so she wouldn’t attract attention.</p><p>“Probably you’re around at least one, if not more alphas every day.”</p><p>Riza nodded. Alphas were diligently recruited to the military, so it was to be expected.</p><p>“Any particularly appealing alphas you see often?”</p><p>Riza kept her face impassive, considering how to explain without possibly jeopardizing herself or Mustang.</p><p>“Keep in mind, I don’t work for the military,” Dr. Renzetti smiled kindly. “You may be obligated to report to them, but I’m not. What you say in here to me will remain private.”</p><p>Riza hesitated. Rebecca knew about some of her history with Mustang, but beyond her Riza had never spoken of it. Even Rebecca didn’t know the whole story.</p><p>“It’s the same alpha,” Riza said, feeing like she was confessing to a teacher that she’d forgotten her homework. “My father’s apprentice is now my commanding officer.”</p><p>“Oh. The same alpha.” Dr. Renzetti struggled to hide her confusion. “But you don’t have a sexual relationship? It says you didn’t have help with your last heat.”</p><p>“No. We have a purely professional relationship. And an old friendship. That’s all.” Her eyes watered before she could stop them. “But…I think I’m in love with him.”</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>Dr. Renzetti was a good soul. She comforted Riza while remaining calm and compassionate. Riza hiccuped and choked back her sobs, but the tears kept flowing.</p><p>“There’s a lot of emotions that go with heats, so it’s no wonder you are feeling overwhelmed by it all,” Dr. Renzetti said.</p><p>“I don’t usually cry—except during my heats.” Usually while wishing for a knot to fill the void in her body and soul. She was always a mess.</p><p>“It’s fine, really. Someone cries in my clinic at least twice a day, if not more. This is a safe place for you to let it out.”</p><p>“I appreciate it,” Riza said softly. “I’ve never told anyone how I feel about him.”</p><p>“Not even him?”</p><p>“Especially not him.” Mustang thought she smelled bad. He never helped omegas through their heats. He pushed her away the second she got too close. She reminded him of her heat leave like clockwork, and he signed off on the paperwork without ever inquiring if she had help. Or wanted it.</p><p>At first it was an idyllic wish. A sweet alpha making all the pain go away, bringing her snacks and holding her through the worst of her heats. Making the empty, hollow feeling go away. Somewhere along the way, her wishes had changed. Even when she had a boyfriend, she wanted <em>her</em> alpha, wanted him knotting her until they fell asleep with him still inside her. Wanted to put her feet in his lap while they read together on the couch. Wanted to raise black-haired little children with his mischievous smirk.</p><p>But she only let herself imagine those things when she was in heat. It was just her hindbrain who wanted that, she deluded herself.</p><p>“I’m not the most acquainted with military regulation, but I believe they have some loopholes for alphas and omegas, don’t they?”</p><p>“It’s not because of the anti-fraternization laws that we aren’t together. It’s because of the…normal reasons,” she said, uncomfortably. And even with the forgiveness the military gave to alphas and omegas, it was only for heats and ruts, and still highly discouraged.</p><p>“There’s no reason you can’t continue as you do, whatever you decide,” Dr. Renzetti transitioned flawlessly. “But with your temperature elevated, you’ll probably have another heat soon. Maybe short. Maybe long. Just watch for symptoms.”</p><p>Riza panicked. “I don’t think I can get through that again.”</p><p>“I could prescribe a strong pain medication for you?”</p><p>“It’s not the pain…”</p><p>“It’s the emptiness, right?” she spoke softly, knowingly. Riza could only nod miserably. No pain medication could fill the hollowness of unfulfilled instinct. Only an alpha could do that. A beta could be a balm, but they could not completely soothe an omega.</p><p>Dr. Renzetti tapped her chin. “This has been a hot topic in my field. How to better help omegas through the psychological changes a heat brings. A few studies have shown great improvement having a friend or family member come by periodically to speak to them, remind them it’s temporary and they will get through it. For too long we have treated heats like an ugly thing to hide from, but it’s just biology. Childbirth is treated with more respect than the heat that often brings it about.”</p><p>“I’ve never let anyone near me during my heat except that first one.” Because she’d been terrified, and Mustang had insisted on helping. She would never have asked for his help otherwise. “But you’re right, just having him around to talk to…made it better.”</p><p>“Is there someone you can call during your heat?”</p><p>Rebecca came to mind immediately.</p><p>“Yes. An omega friend of mine.”</p><p>“Perfect. It’s not like omegas <em>need</em> an alpha. Don’t feel pressured to go that route if you aren’t comfortable. Just because it works for others doesn’t mean it will work for you.”</p><p>“Thank you.” Riza suddenly wanted to hug her doctor. No one had ever told her it was okay to be alone before.</p><p>“And while we are on that good note, here’s my recommendation.”</p><p>Riza deflated. She clutched her tissue in her hand, swiping at her nose as she braced herself for bad news.</p><p>“I can only theorize, since we don’t have your commanding officer here, but if it’s an unfulfilled attachment to an alpha, your body may just be reacting. Your instincts are amplifying to entice him, for lack of a better word.”</p><p>“But I’ve known him since we were kids.”</p><p>“More reason your omega biology is rioting. It might be best if you transferred—”</p><p>“I can’t do that.”</p><p>“Then we can try and reset your cycle.” Dr. Renzetti pursed her lips. “Knowing how religious you are with that blocker array, I don’t think you’ll like it.”</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“You’ll need to take off the blocker array for a full cycle. That means this next heat, and the one after. Then you can put it back on and we will go from there.”</p><p>“I can’t. I’ve never gone without it.” She couldn’t do it. Not only getting through two lengthy heats without it, but her daily life in the military. Everyone would know she was an omega. Everyone would smell her scent spikes and she would smell theirs. Her privacy would be ripped apart.</p><p>“It will be an adjustment, but I feel confident you will manage.”</p><p>Riza slumped. “I suppose I don’t have a choice.” Her heat was barreling down on her no matter which path she chose. Maybe if her date with Vinnie went well—</p><p>Her hindbrain reared back in disgust.</p><p>“You always have a choice,” Dr. Renzetti said.</p><p>It didn’t feel that way to Riza. Everything she had worked for as Mustang’s lieutenant, her atonement for her crimes in Ishval, his hopes to be fuhrer, it all required that she regulate her heats. She couldn’t work if her heats happened twice a month or more.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>After the appointment, Riza went to check out with the receptionist. Abruptly a very burly man, who looked like he had to be an alpha, barged in carrying a small woman. She was wrapped in layers of blankets, her face red and streaked with tears.</p><p>“Help, please! Alpha!” the woman screamed. “Take me home, please!”</p><p>“Sorry, sorry,” the man crooned. “I’m getting you help. Hang on.”</p><p>Riza jumped out of the way so the man could speak to the nurse who had burst through the door upon hearing the woman’s cries. Riza averted her eyes, and the other women in the waiting room did the same.</p><p>“I called on the phone,” he said.</p><p>“Right, come on back,” the nurse said, ushering them through the door and down the hall. The omega’s screams carried on, growing more muffled as they went.</p><p>“We’ve all been there,” one of the women in the waiting room joked lightly, earning quiet laughter from the uncomfortable group of women.</p><p>“I wonder why he brought her here?” one older woman asked, voicing what everyone was thinking. Riza took a pen and filled out the last of her paperwork</p><p>“Maybe for trouble conceiving?” another woman offered. “I know sometimes they have to do tests during heats.”</p><p>“I hope it’s quick,” the older woman said. “The poor dear.”</p><p>Riza privately agreed, and she was grateful to leave the office and the omega’s cries behind. But the camaraderie in the waiting room, and Dr. Renzetti’s empowering words had given her a lot to consider. Did she really have a choice with her designation? Her heats?</p><p>She walked to East City’s headquarters imagining what the walk would be like without her blocker array on. A young couple walked past her, and she realized she would know their designations just by scent. If one of them was an alpha or omega, she’d even be able to tell I they’d had sex recently or not unless they wore blockers. Her stomach twisted in discomfort at the thought. Betas were lucky. Their pheromones were too subdued to scent, although they could sometimes scent strong pheromones from alphas and omegas.</p><p>Riza spent the rest of the way to the office debating when it would be best to remove her blocker. Most importantly, she wanted to time it so she missed as little work as possible.</p><p>She felt more at peace once she arrived at work. Aside from still scenting Mustang, she could pretend things were normal and she didn’t have another miserable heat bearing down on her.</p><p>Riza waited until it was nearly the time Mustang liked to take his lunch break, knowing she would want some space to breathe after bringing up something she considered so personal. As an extra precaution, she called Havoc over to come with her, so all three of them could meet in the privacy of Mustang’s private office. Havoc had tired circles under his eyes—probably from helping Rebecca through her heat—but he hadn’t complained once all morning.</p><p>Riza stood ramrod straight, heels together, pretending this was just an ordinary update she would give the team, not one reflecting her designation or fertility. Mustang sat casually at his desk, twirling a pen.</p><p>“I just wanted to give you a head’s up that I have to remove my blocker for a while, starting tomorrow.” Giving herself the deadline meant she wouldn’t back out.</p><p>The pen dropped to the floor. Mustang kept his face neutral, and beside her Havoc didn’t dare say a word. Technically, she was not required to say anything about it, but it was a courtesy she felt she owed them. Omegas were so rare amongst the military they had probably never had to work for an extended time with one. Rebecca liked being a novelty, but she also wasn’t worried about staying in the military long-term like Riza was.</p><p>“I don’t want it to be a distraction, and I don’t want to…trigger anything,” she added delicately. It was common knowledge that removing a blocker could cause pheromones to go haywire.</p><p>“I’ll keep my emergency blocker ready,” Havoc said, saluting. “I’m sure you’ll smell delightful, lieutenant.”</p><p>At his desk, Mustang slammed both hands down on the desk. His words came out in a growl.</p><p>“Shut it, Havoc. I could court martial you for harassing another officer about their designation.”</p><p>“I was joking, sir.” He turned to Riza. “I apologize.”</p><p>“<em>I</em> know you were joking,” she said, rolling her eyes. Mustang could be so sensitive when an omega was even remotely slighted. “I’d shoot you if you were truly harassing me.”</p><p>“I was just trying to lighten the mood. I’m not worried about anything, but thank you for the warning,” Havoc said.</p><p>Mustang dismissed him and Havoc hurried off, very aware when his presence was souring the lieutenant-colonel’s mood. Mustang gestured for her to sit down, then crossed his arms like he was going to interrogate a suspect.</p><p>“I take it the doctor visit didn’t go well?” he asked.</p><p>“I at least have answers. Not easy ones, but there is something that can be done about it.” She had no desire to tell him about his connection to it. Preferably, she’d pretend everything was fine and nothing had changed.</p><p>He nodded. “That’s something. Your blocker is working like normal for me. Do you want to trade back?”</p><p>“No,” she said—too quickly. She liked him wearing hers too much. And wearing his. “I’ll just hand it over tomorrow after I’ve taken it off.”</p><p>“Ah, yes, that’s fine,” he said, his eyes lingering on her neck where the blocker was beneath her uniform. “How—how long do you think you’ll keep it off? Not that you have to put it back on. If you don’t want to.” He said it like he really wanted her to wear it, though. Her omega side keened in disappointment, but on the outside Riza remained calm.</p><p>“Two months at the longest, hopefully sooner,” she said. Her next breath the taste of rich, spicy pheromones fell thickly on her tongue. <em>Alpha</em>.</p><p>“Is that all, lieutenant?” he asked, finally reaching to the floor to pick up his lost pen. “You’re dismissed.”</p><p>Riza strode out to her desk, wondering how she would get through being around him without her blocker when she was already buzzing all over from his scent in the air.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>At home, Riza made a simple dinner and called Rebecca immediately afterward. She was afraid that taking off the blocker would send her into heat or crush her with hormonal emotions.</p><p>Of course, explaining the doctor’s visit also meant explaining everything else to her friend, and it was a challenge to dance around Mustang’s part in Riza’s misbehaving heat cycle.</p><p>“So your first proper heat, huh?”</p><p>“The doctor recommended…a friend to talk to because I don’t have anyone to help. Could I call you? Once it starts?”</p><p>“Riza, I would be happy to be the heat sister you call to talk you down from knotless hell,” Rebecca said, sounding touched even as she teased. “But you don’t have to be alone. Jean was—wow. I’d say you should try him out, but I don’t want to share.”</p><p>“Oh? Is this more than a hookup now?”</p><p>“I don’t know. It’s…something.” She coughed. “So not Jean. You really don’t want anyone? It’s a lot longer than what you’re used to.”</p><p>Riza sighed. “I did agree to go on a date. With an alpha.”</p><p>“An alpha? Who?”</p><p>“He’s a teacher friend of Breda’s,” she said. “I doubt I’ll want him to help me with my heat, but I’m trying to be open to…being helped.”</p><p>All it took was remembering the blur of a weekend, screaming herself hoarse and cowering in a nest of blankets to realize she needed to try and take control of her heats any way she could.</p><p>“Well, heat sister—and we really are now—I will be happy to help.”</p><p>“Could you…maybe give me some advice on…all the smells? I’m dreading it,” she admitted, hating every minute this conversation continued. Even with Rebecca, who she trusted with her life.</p><p>“Oh, I would love to!”</p><p>The next hour was better than expected. Rebecca put her at ease, and had an answer for everything. By the end of it, when Jean apparently arrived to make Rebecca dinner, they were laughing about Riza losing her scenting virginity.</p><p>The confidence didn’t last terribly long once Riza was faced with removing her blocker for real. Of course she had taken it off before—just always returning it to around her neck before her body recognized what was missing.</p><p>This time, as she took it off and placed it into an envelope, she only had to resist putting it back on. Her neck felt bare, but otherwise it was no different from when she removed it to shower or clean it.</p><p>Suddenly, she didn’t know what to do with herself. She started cleaning her apartment, organizing her kitchen, dusting, and eventually folding the mess of laundry leftover from her breakthrough heat. It was as she came across Mustang’s jacket while folding a tangled sheet that she noticed something was different.</p><p>She could still smell him on it. Even though she had washed it—twice.</p><p>Before she could stop herself, she had shoved her nose into it, right at the collar where it was strongest. A pathetic moan was wrenched from her, and slick built low in her belly.</p><p>“Alpha,” she sighed into the fabric.</p><p>As soon as her higher awareness realized what she was doing, she dropped the jacket in fright. It was turning her into an animal. And that was his <em>diluted</em> scent. How would she survive tomorrow at work when she saw him in person?</p><p>“No, it’s fine,” she told herself. As long as Mustang wore his blocker around her, it would be…manageable.</p><p>But maybe some exposure therapy would help. She took the jacket with her and set it on her bed. When she was ready to fall asleep, after spending a couple of hours sniffing the air in paranoia, she put on the jacket over her sleep shirt. Snuggling into it felt like she was wrapped in his arms, protected and safe. Nothing could harm her with that strong alpha scent in her nose. Her body hummed contentedly as she was lulled to sleep.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>Ten minutes out of her apartment and Riza was ready to put her blocker back on. There was a constant assault of scents, and even though no one was actively smelling her—not even the half a dozen alphas she passed—she felt like a bright spotlight was pointed at her.</p><p>Each step toward the office escalated her nerves. She struggled to steady her breathing, knowing that her fear scent was broadcasting to the world. During her time in Ishval, it had become a weapon of war to take frightened Ishvalan omegas and drive the alphas into a rage. Ishvalans didn’t use any kind of suppressants, so it had been just another advantage the military had over their people.</p><p>It was fortunate she arrived first to the office, prepping her desk like usual and running an errand to another department across headquarters.</p><p>When she returned, Mustang and the others had arrived. She inhaled the trace scent of Mustang. Mixed with the other men, it was tolerable. It didn’t make her want to dive headfirst into a heat or anything. She said good morning and went straight to her desk, trying to pretend everything was normal. Havoc gave her a goofy thumbs up, but otherwise said nothing about her unsuppressed state.</p><p>Mustang was drinking coffee and reviewing a report she’d left on his desk, his office door uncharacteristically shut. His shiny dark hair looked more rumpled than usual—like it did when he overslept and only used his fingers to comb it after a shower.</p><p>Maybe he was giving her space, or waiting for her to come forward, because he didn’t call her in like usual. He spoke with Breda and Falman, and normally she would come along to those conversations. This time he just gestures for her to stay put.</p><p>Riza didn’t mind. The draft from his door opening and closing was enough to make her mouth water. She kept licking her lips, searching for a taste of him. And when an especially strong wave of him came through, she imagined unbuttoning his uniform at the collar to rub her nose against him, huffing down his scent like an addict. She dug her nails into her palms to keep her focused.</p><p>Her bitterness only grew when she overheard him laughing on the phone, completely unbothered, even though Riza was drowning in a sea of unfamiliar scents. His was the only one she recognized.</p><p>Havoc’s smelled mildly appealing, but a little bland compared to what she was used to from Mustang. A lot of the alphas around headquarters smelled bitter or dark, and she could tell when they were angry or aroused by her scent unless they wore a blocker. Then she smelled harmless nothingness.</p><p>She did not appreciate knowing that certain officers were very interested in discovering she was an omega, especially General Seldan. His nostrils flared and his eyes raked over her—even though she knew he was married to a very nice beta.</p><p>Riza glared and marched to the mess hall where she was meeting Rebecca for lunch. She was itching to put her blocker on, especially in a room littered with unsuppressed alphas. Even Rebecca would often put on her blocker in the mess hall. It was too much.</p><p>“Let’s go eat outside,” Rebecca said after taking one look at Riza’s expression.</p><p>“You’re the best,” Riza said, taking a tray to the small courtyard connected to the mess hall. The open air still caught the scents, but she could breathe easier, and with the limited tables, few alphas could follow them.</p><p>Most of them knew better than to so much as look at her, but they couldn’t stop their scents from spiking with arousal if they liked her scent. And it seemed for alphas in a building with only two young omegas, it didn’t take much to get them going.</p><p>“I hate this,” Riza said in a hushed voice, mangling her bread rather than eating it. “I want to put my blocker back on.”</p><p>“You told me to talk you out of it if you said that. Remember how awful your heat was?”</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>“It’s probably just the shock of it. All of the alphas get excited like puppies when there’s an omega around. They won’t try anything too forward. They can probably smell your anger across the building.”</p><p>Riza popped a piece of bread into her mouth, scowling as a young sergeant ogled her from the next table over. He let out a noise close to a squeak and purposefully took out his emergency blocker and threw it on over his head.</p><p>She felt a little guilty after that. Any unsuppressed alpha might be susceptible to going into rut with an omega around—two if she counted Rebecca. Rebecca wore her blocker today, but the faint scent of her clung to her clothes. It was such a different smell than an alpha’s. It was light and sweet. Not enticing like Mustang’s. Refreshing. Non-threatening.</p><p>“I’m surprised your overbearing commanding officer didn’t escort you here, to be honest,” Rebecca commented, looking around for the man in question.</p><p>“If anything, he’s been keeping a larger distance than usual.” She nibbled her lip before deciding to share her theory. “I don’t think he likes my scent.”</p><p>Rebecca howled with laughter, calling even more attention to their table.</p><p>“What?” Riza prodded when Rebecca just kept laughing. “He’s been hiding in his office all day.”</p><p>“Riza, sweetie, I’m confident it’s the opposite. He’s gagging for a piece of your omega ass.”</p><p>Riza lowered her voice, trying to hide how insulted she was as she spoke. She wasn’t an idiot.</p><p>“He has had more than enough opportunities to say something to me if he was.”</p><p>“Military policy says a superior officer <em>can</em> help a subordinate through a heat or rut, but only if asked.”</p><p>“He wouldn’t care about something like that.”</p><p>“Would he?” Rebecca countered. “Or does he think <em>you’d</em> care about it?”</p><p>Riza didn’t want to add that she had found out he’d never helped an omega through a heat the traditional way. He probably didn’t want to, and that was his business. She wouldn’t bring it up with Rebecca.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>With Rebecca’s support, Riza suffered successfully through lunch before she returned to the office. Entering the familiar room, she saw Mustang remained isolated at his desk. She wondered if he’d even left for lunch. No one else was in the office either, so she took her moment.</p><p>Digging into her pocket, she grabbed the envelope with the blocker in it and walked confidently into his office. She left the door open, relying on the fresh air to keep her focused on the task at hand. Even so, he might as well not be wearing a blocker for how strong that rich alpha scent hit her.</p><p>“Need something, lieutenant?” he asked flippantly, at odds with his tense posture. He barely glanced at her before returning to the report in front of him.</p><p>“I just wanted to return this,” she said, holding up the envelope like she would any report. He took his own off perfunctorily, switching it out and placing her original necklace in the envelope. She placed it in her uniform’s pocket.</p><p>“Was that all?” he asked, back to avoiding eye contact.</p><p>She faltered at the obvious dismissal in his words. Usually he would ask for her help with a report or to adjust his schedule, but he was balancing it all himself today. <em>Alpha was upset with her</em>.</p><p>“I hope—I hope my scent doesn’t bother you,” she said, apologetic. He’d never been so distant with her before, and she was anxious to make it better.</p><p>His nostrils flared. “My blocker is still working well enough.”</p><p>“Sir, if my scent is…unpleasant to you, I can see about working in another office until I can use my blocker again. I don’t want to hinder your work.”</p><p>“You think…it’s unpleasant?” She could not place his tone. Confused. Angry. “Do I smell <em>unpleasant</em> to <em>you</em>?” He emphasized the word, and the anger was coming in stronger now. She just didn’t understand why.</p><p>“Obviously not,” she scoffed. How many times had she made a fool of herself over his alpha scent? The past week alone had been more than plenty. The number of times he had made a fool of himself over her? Exactly zero.</p><p>“Then it’s fine. As long as you can manage, so can I,” he said. Her frustration mounted at his indifference. “Now, is that everything, lieutenant?”</p><p>“You didn’t go over the latest report from Central with me, sir.” She retrieved it from her desk and returned, slipping into the familiar guidance of her position as adjutant. It was easier to interact with him in this role when her hindbrain was eager to preen for his attention.</p><p>Mustang pinched the bridge of his nose as she went to his side to place the report on his desk, leaning to show him the highlights and where his signatures were needed. She had done this possibly dozens of times before and never thought anything of it. This time her hindbrain struggled for control, whispering that she should step closer, let him scent her. Her palms began to sweat, and she focused on the report in front of them like her life depended on it, all the while there was something tingling in the air, something so tempting, but just outside of reach behind his blocker. She had to press her thighs together to keep her cool, but she did it.</p><p>Once finished, she left his office telling herself the next time it would be easier.</p><p>It was. Barely. It was remained a constant fight with herself to stay professional.</p><p>While being around Mustang remained a challenge without her blocker—more so than usual—she was too stubborn to let it keep her from her duties.</p><p>By the end of the week, Riza had a rhythm, and her confidence grew. The novelty of her omega status wore off quickly amongst the alphas at headquarters. She could move about without stares or worrying she was setting off a rut.</p><p>It was with her revitalized confidence that Riza kept her date with Breda’s friend Vinnie for that Friday. Sure, she didn’t have plans to spend her pending heat with him—and she could tell her heat was approaching again, though her symptoms were minimal enough that she believed she had a good week before it arrived.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>Vinnie picked Riza up at her apartment. His chestnut hair was smoothed back smartly, and he wore a casual suit—nothing like the expensive ones Mustang wore. Immediately she scolded herself for comparing him to Mustang, but it was impossible not to. Vinnie didn’t wear a blocker, and while he put out a warm, spicy scent, it was flat and unremarkable.</p><p>Self-consciously, she knew he was scenting her too, but she busied herself with her bag.</p><p>“There’s a new restaurant on the river I thought we could try,” he said, as she put on her coat.</p><p>“That sounds nice,” she said.</p><p>And it <em>was</em> nice. Vinnie was interested in her work in the military, and told funny stories about his students. They commiserated about incompetent colleagues. The food at the restaurant was delicious, and he didn’t argue when she paid for her half. She didn’t want to feel indebted to him.</p><p>The date was going so well, they decided to walk in the park nearby, even though it was chilly out.</p><p>“How many siblings do you have?” she countered after confessing to being a lonely only child.</p><p>“Two sisters and one brother,” he said. “All of them younger than me.” He laughed. “My youngest sister is only six. Pretty sure she’s a heat accident.”</p><p>Riza blushed at the private information, but at the same time it didn’t feel invasive. It was like she was being included in his family life—something she could admit she urgently wanted for herself. Even if she could never have it.</p><p>“I can’t imagine what it would be like having to live with an alpha-omega pair as parents,” she said. “My mother was an omega, but she died when I was young. I don’t remember her very well.”</p><p>“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said. “I can’t say what your family would have been like with your mother around, but I never knew anything different. Whenever her heat was approaching, we’d either go to our grandparents’ home or we were mildly ignored while my dad came in and out like a mad man. We always knew to be on our best behavior those days—I think it was the pheromones? Makes kids behave,” he said it with affectionate nostalgia.</p><p>“I have heard it helps soothe children,” she said. She couldn’t recall experiencing it herself. “But I do know about alpha commands from a parent. Then you knew you were in deep trouble.”</p><p>“Oh yes!” he laughed, rounding a loop in the path to return to his car. “Our dad saved it for when we were acting truly awful.”</p><p>And maybe it was all the talk of heat, but Riza started to feel quite warm. When they reached his car, she was sweltering. She took off her coat and laid it across her lap, hoping it was a false alarm.</p><p>Vinnie took the driver’s seat and sniffed loudly.</p><p>“Uhh,” he began, his whole body tensing. “Not to be rude, but are you close to your heat?”</p><p>“I didn’t think so,” she said, bristling now at the scent of the <em>wrong</em> alpha filling up the car. Wrong, wrong, wrong. “It’s been a bit erratic lately. I’m so sorry,” she said.</p><p>“It’s—it’s fine,” he said. “I do have a blocker I keep on me.”</p><p>And while Vinnie relaxed once the blocker was on, Riza did not. She could still smell the wrong alpha all around, and her omega side was rioting to escape. She needed <em>her</em> alpha.</p><p>“Alpha,” she whispered, looking out the window in the direction she knew Mustang lived.</p><p>“I’ll get you home,” Vinnie said. His hand hovered beside her, like he wanted to comfort her, but merely offered it rather than taking it. Riza’s stomach churned and she edged slightly away.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” she said again.</p><p>“It’s no trouble. Do you—do you need anything from the store before I drop you off?”</p><p>“No, I’m all set,” she lied. She would get by, or she could have Rebecca grab her some things. She just knew she didn’t want to encourage him to want to offer help in <em>other</em> ways. Traditionally, the alpha made the offer, and the omega could accept or deny it.</p><p>There was only one alpha she wanted help from, but she would have to do this without him.</p><p>She swallowed back her frustration. Another weekend ruined by her heat. Any hope of a second date with Vinnie was probably off the table, too. Maybe she could have gotten past the wrongness if she tried harder. It wasn’t fair to only want an alpha she couldn’t have.</p><p>They arrived at her building before her heat could fully start, and she was grateful because then she probably would have had to pay to have his seats cleaned. The first wave of heat often came with a waterfall of slick.</p><p>“Do you need me to—” Vinnie floundered. “Walk you up?”</p><p>“No, I’m fine. Thank you. And thank you for the lovely evening. I’m sorry I ruined it.”</p><p>“Nothing ruined. I feel lucky to have spent time with you. Good luck. Call if you…need anything,” he added the last part in a mumble and avoided her gaze.</p><p>Riza could only nod before she wrapped her coat tightly around her and went upstairs. Like a dog catching scent of freshly cooked bacon, she went straight to Mustang’s jacket. The slick puddled in her underwear immediately as she inhaled, but she whimpered at how faint it was after a wash.</p><p>She wanted to call him so badly. Maybe if she told him she was alone, in heat, he would take pity on her and <em>ask</em>…</p><p>Instead, after preparing a few things and nesting like a possessed animal, she called Rebecca.</p><p>“How was your date?” Rebecca asked.</p><p>“Great until I went into heat,” she said gruffly. “And now I’ve reached a new low.”</p><p>“A new low?”</p><p>“I need a favor.”</p><p>“Anything, heat sister. Except you can’t borrow Jean.”</p><p>Riza laughed, even as she clutched a hot water bottle to her lower abdomen.</p><p>“No, I need you to steal something for me. Havoc might need to help you. But—don’t tell him why.”</p><p>“I’m listening.”</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>A couple hours later, Rebecca knocked on the door. Riza staggered out of her nest after wiping down her legs with a towel and putting on a robe. She felt shaky and sweaty, and other than a deep, aching craving for a knot from a certain alpha, she was doing better than she had the weekend before.</p><p>She cracked open the door. Rebecca wore a pleased grin.</p><p>“We got it. And I didn’t let Havoc touch it, as promised.”</p><p>Rebecca held up the item Riza had requested. One of the colonel’s ignition gloves.</p><p>“And I did my best to cover for you, but Jean probably suspects something. Sorry.”</p><p>Riza flushed. “I knew that was a possibility.” She didn’t think Havoc would say anything to Mustang about it, which was the most important thing.</p><p>“Are you holding up okay?”</p><p>Riza put the glove to her nose, powerless to resist sniffing it.</p><p>“<em>Alpha</em>.” She needed him, <em>now</em>. She wanted his arms around her, filling her body with his knot, telling her what a good omega she was…</p><p>Rebecca coughed loudly, pulling Riza back to reality. She squeezed her thighs together, keeping the slick from sliding to the floor. <em>Ugh</em>.</p><p>“Why don’t you just call him? He’d be happy to—”</p><p>“He wouldn’t. He would offer if he wanted to,” Riza insisted.</p><p>“Not if he’s concerned about overstepping as your commanding officer. I know—I know it can be hard, as the omega, to ask.” Rebecca wrinkled her nose, thoughtful. “Even Jean was afraid to overstep, and he’s not in my chain of command. And there’s a reason I don’t ask an alpha directly. It goes against instinct. It’s easier to ask you or someone else to see if they are interested for me.”</p><p>“I’m not asking him,” she replied curtly. It was probably ruder than she meant, but her heat was ramping up, she didn’t <em>want</em> to ask, and she hated that it was because of her designation. She was a soldier, not a nervous teenager afraid to ask a boy on a date. She could ask a boy on a date. She just couldn’t ask an alpha to fuck her through her heat.</p><p>“Well, try not to light a fire with that thing,” Rebecca said. Then she giggled. “Although I suspect it’d be difficult to get a spark—”</p><p>“Don’t finish that sentence.”</p><p>“Okay, okay, I’m leaving. Stay strong, heat sister. This will be over before you know it.”</p><p>“Thank you. I owe you one.”</p><p>“Nah. This is in return for helping me with Jean. Call if you need anything!”</p><p>Riza shuffled back to the nest atop her bed, hindbrain reeling at her latest addition to the nest. Despising herself a little, Riza put the glove on her left hand, breathing in the rich, spicy scent of Mustang as she let her other hand travel between her legs to relieve some of the emptiness that plagued her.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>To add to her confusion, her heat only lasted a day—just as it did when she wore a blocker. While part of her was relieved she had an extra day to recover rather than missing work, she was also concerned that it meant it would take longer for her cycle to reset. It <em>should</em> have been three days, or close to it.</p><p>And she wasn’t sure if it was Rebecca’s support over the phone, “<em>It will be over soon. You got this,</em>” or Mustang’s glove, or the wild shift of hormones that had caused her to have the heat in the first place, but…it had been easier than usual. It was more of an inconvenience than a torture.</p><p>The cost of the glove came bright and early at the office when Havoc came swaggering in, waggling his eyebrows at her.</p><p>Riza’s eyes darted to Mustang’s office, but he was safely behind the door to his office. It had become his new normal since she’d removed her blocker.</p><p>Havoc leaned on her desk. “Were your hands cold this weekend?”</p><p>“It was temporary madness,” she said through gritted teeth.</p><p>“I’m not judging,” he said. “I don’t understand why you didn’t just ask for him to help you himself. Or have Rebecca ask?”</p><p>“He doesn’t want to.”</p><p>Havoc stiffened and glowered in the direction of the colonel’s office.</p><p>“What?” he snarled.</p><p>“He doesn’t help omegas through their heats. It’s nothing personal.”</p><p>“So you’ve explicitly asked him to help you?”</p><p>“…No. I can’t—I can’t ask him,” she said. No matter how much she wanted to during her heats, she knew her omega wouldn’t be able to handle the rejection.</p><p>“I’m sure he’d say yes for you,” he said, teasing gone, voice softer. “Do you want me to ask him?”</p><p>“Oh god, no. Please don’t,” she said, feeling her cheeks turn bright red. She could just imagine how well that would go. And then not only would she be soundly rejected but Havoc would know about it. It was bad enough he knew about her—feelings.</p><p>“The offer stands if you change your mind. I know omegas don’t like to ask, but he’s your superior officer. He’s not allowed to ask.”</p><p>“I know that, but it’s Mustang. He’s known me long enough, he would know—”</p><p>“I think you are overestimating our boss. He’s willing to bend rules he thinks are unjust or could help his ambitions.” He scrubbed at his chin, thoughtful. “Yeah, I don’t think he’d ask <em>because</em> it’s you. He respects you too much.”</p><p>“I doubt he wants to help a subordinate—”</p><p>“I’m sure he’d prefer you weren’t a subordinate, but I know an interested alpha when I see one. On your days off he doesn’t wear his blocker, did you know that?”</p><p>“Maybe I smell bad—”</p><p>“You don’t smell bad to him!” He bent over the desk, shaking his head in amusement. “I can’t believe I didn’t know you were an omega before. It’s so obvious now.”</p><p>Riza huffed. “Lieutenant, don’t you have work to do?” she asked.</p><p>And with perfect timing Breda and Fuery walked in, and Fuery had brought bagels for everyone. It was a perfect distraction, and even convinced Mustang to leave the sanctity of his office.</p><p>Riza couldn’t help but notice how he steered clear of her desk where she nibbled on a bagel, and his eyes darted to her and she could tell he could still smell her by the way his nose twitched. She willed her scent to chill out, but there was nothing to be done about it, especially without a blocker. Hopefully her next heat was perfectly normal, and she could wear her blocker without her scent leaking through to Mustang anymore.</p><p>That day they had planned to do some recruitment for the state alchemist program, but a call came mid-morning saying it had been cancelled by someone higher up the chain.</p><p>Riza thought it strange, but then they received another call from the research department shortly after, informing them of a mandatory meeting that afternoon, but only for Mustang, Havoc, and herself.</p><p>“Mandatory?” Mustang asked when she told him. His mood had already been temperamental, now she could see his anger simmering underneath.</p><p>“Yes, for you, Havoc, and me,” she confirmed.</p><p>“I don’t like the sound of that.”</p><p> “Why? What do you think the research department would want with us?”</p><p>He grimaced. “Hughes said he heard about something going on at Central. Some kind of sniff test for alphas.” He waved his hand at her. “And omegas, apparently.”</p><p>“I’m unsurprised they’re using soldiers for experiments, but I <em>am</em> surprised they brought you into it.” His rank should protect him more.</p><p>“Just another dog of the military,” he said bitterly.</p><p>“It’s probably nothing dangerous,” she offered. His flame alchemy was too powerful to risk.</p><p>“Depends on your definition of dangerous. I doubt this is going to be a pleasant experience.”</p><p> </p><p>A few hours later, crammed in a room full of rows of chairs, Riza agreed with Mustang’s prediction. Scanning the room, she counted nearly thirty alphas, and the only other omega was Rebecca who waved them over with a relieved smile. Havoc weaseled into the seat beside Rebecca, an arm placed carelessly over the back of her chair, but otherwise keeping his distance. Still, it was a blatantly protective gesture.</p><p>Riza would usually stand on the sidelines, watching for threats, but as just another soldier today, she wound up sitting between Mustang and Havoc.</p><p>The room was teeming with alpha scents, many of them spiking at Riza’s presence. Rebecca had wisely put her blocker on, so it was only Riza’s scent mixing with the others.</p><p>Beside her, Mustang’s scent also spiked, and he made a show of putting his ignition gloves on. Riza found Rebecca’s gaze and they both shared a look of understanding—the men were all reacting and going into alpha mode. Riza could tell her pheromones were dialing back into a non-threatening scent to avoid the attention of the alphas.</p><p>Finally, Lieutenant General Gardner went up front to start the event. His eyes scanned over the crowd, glasses glinting in the light. He welcomed everyone, thanking them for taking time out of their day—as if they hadn’t all had their schedules uprooted to attend.</p><p>“There has been some intelligence that our country’s enemies are using artificial pheromones as a weapon of war,” he said, finally addressing the reason for needing a good chunk of headquarters’ alphas—and the two omegas. “To combat that, we are trying to replicate the scents ourselves so we can then find a way to counter them,” the doctor explained.</p><p>Riza highly doubted the supposed intelligence. She knew the way Amestris worked. More than likely, it was their own military creating the artificial pheromones, testing it on the plentiful soldiers they had on hand. When she spotted the older alpha who oversaw the East City designation department fuming in the back, it only confirmed it. Catching Mustang’s eye, she nodded in his direction.</p><p>Mustang’s growled lowly. Oh dear. He was leaning hard into his alpha side.</p><p>“We know this is an inconvenience at best, but we also know our fine soldiers are ready to do whatever it takes to protect their country. Everything we learn today will go toward better defending our borders,” Gardner continued, failing to rouse any excitement from the group.</p><p>Riza wanted to gag, but as Gardener continued to explain the process, it was made clear that leaving would result in a court martial.</p><p>“This is majorly overstepping,” Mustang said out of the corner of his mouth.</p><p>“It’s probably nothing too terrible.” They’d both experienced worse than a sniff test.</p><p>“That’s not what I’m worried about,” he said.</p><p>She wanted to ask him to clarify his words, but a young doctor took over from Gardner as another doctor rolled in a cart of tightly capped metal canisters. While this was done, a large array on the ground was revealed.</p><p>“What’s that?” Riza asked. It looked a little familiar.</p><p>“I think it’s the way they plan to neutralize the air of the artificial pheromones,” he said, sounding impressed, his academic side making an appearance.</p><p>Riza thought about all her efforts the past week to correct her heat cycle and hoped this wouldn’t undo her progress.</p><p>“Our staff will be observing you all closely, and asking questions, so please be as cooperative as you can,” the doctor said. “They are here to help, and if anyone is struggling, we will immediately activate the neutralizing array. For those of you wearing blockers, we just ask that you let us know so we can adjust our notes.”</p><p>Riza almost wanted to hold her breath when the first canister was opened, they were warned only that it was an omega scent. The scent hit those without blockers first, and hard. As an omega herself, the scent didn’t affect her more than setting her on edge. It was the scent of a frightened omega, sending out a help signal. What <em>did</em> affect her was the scent of the other alphas in the room reacting to it. Angry and protective. She knew her own scent spiked in return, calming and docile, another leftover evolutionary survival tactic.</p><p>Beside her, Mustang relaxed out of his defensive state, and Havoc, without his blocker, was practically sedated, slumped back contentedly in his seat.</p><p>The doctors went around and took hurried notes of his observations, occasionally asking what they smelled and how they felt. It really didn’t take very long, surprisingly, and they activated the array, the oppressive scent vanishing. The crowd broke out in relieved murmurs, but Riza was already dreading what came next.</p><p>It was an alpha scent, no, an <em>aroused</em> alpha, close to rut. Riza coughed, the scent far more overpowering than what she was used to. It wasn’t her alpha’s scent though, her hindbrain concluded. It was appealing, but not enough to bring about a reaction from her pheromones. Unwillingly, her eyes went to Mustang only to catch him watching her.</p><p>“That wasn’t nearly as interesting as I thought it would be,” Havoc admitted as the doctors did their second round of notes and questions.</p><p>“I expected more violence,” Rebecca chimed in.</p><p>Riza had, too. She kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.</p><p>After five rounds of sniff tests, the young doctor looked up distractedly from his clipboard, and said, “I have on record we have two omegas, yes?”</p><p>To their credit, none of the alphas in the room said a word, though being the only women in the group was a dead giveaway. The doctor’s eyes flitted between them clinically.</p><p>“Why don’t you two come with us to another room?”</p><p>“What the hell for?” Mustang hissed under his breath, his hand twitched to her arm, like he wanted to keep her from leaving. With such a large audience, Riza couldn’t ask him what was the matter.</p><p>She stood with Rebecca and followed two doctors out of the room. At least one of them was another woman, which made Riza feel a smidgeon better about the whole thing. They escorted them upstairs and down the hall, far from where they had held the testing.</p><p>“I really wish we had more omegas to test, but we’ll have to work with what we have,” the doctor said, gesturing for the pair to take a seat at a table in the middle of the room.</p><p>“Is this still just a sniff test?” Rebecca asked skeptically. The table was arranged with what looked almost like a buffet, except there were small airtight canisters lined up instead of trays of food.</p><p>Riza had a bad feeling she didn’t like. It reminded her of when Mrs. Donovan had escorted her home to a newly presented Mustang—making sure she could keep control of herself around him. It was degrading.</p><p>“Yes,” the young doctor said. “Although it was also pertinent to have you out of the room for the next test they are doing on the alphas.”</p><p>“What are they doing?” Riza demanded, concern growing for Mustang and Havoc.</p><p>“Just testing reactions to amplified heat pheromones,” he said, offhanded, like it was an everyday thing to subject people to. For him, maybe it was.</p><p>Riza chewed on the inside of her cheek, suspicion growing. They had wanted her and Rebecca out of the room—afraid they might trigger ruts. She <em>really</em> hoped that neutralizing array held up.</p><p>“You two are just going to rate alpha smells for us. But you do need to wear your blocker this time,” he said. The other doctor nodded along, her smile frozen in place.</p><p>“I would prefer to not wear my blocker,” Riza said.</p><p>“It’s required, Lieutenant Hawkeye. This comes from senior command.” He said it matter-of-factly, appalled at her disagreement. Maybe he held onto the stereotype of omegas being sweet and malleable.</p><p>Riza would correct him. “I have orders from my doctor to not wear mine due to personal health issues,” she said.</p><p>“A military doctor?” he asked.</p><p>Her temper flared. She was cornered. “No. A civilian one. The military doesn’t have any who specialize in omega health.”</p><p>“Because this was not reported to the designation department,” he said, “we will have to continue forward with the testing. Until it’s on your record, you have to be treated like everyone else.”</p><p>Riza would never report it to the designation department. That would give them access to her private chart, which would reveal a few things she had left out of her visit to the military’s physician. Like a certain tattoo on her back and the scars that protected its secrets.</p><p>Frustrated that she was backed into a corner, that the military had abused its power once again, that her last heat may have been for nothing, Riza put on her blocker with greater physical restraint than she felt internally. She spent the rest of the tests plotting petty revenge on the doctor. Once Mustang was fuhrer she would make sure this man was out of a job. She also purposefully lied about each scent the doctor put out for her.</p><p>As soon as she and Rebecca were dismissed, Riza removed her blocker like it would burn her.</p><p>“I’m sorry they did that,” Rebecca said quietly, giving a rude gesture to the doctors’ backs as they walked away.</p><p>“Me too.” She hoped the brief hour she wore the blocker hadn’t done any damage to resetting her misbehaving cycle. Maybe she should call Dr. Renzetti and ask.</p><p>“I’m going to go and tell Grumman how shitty this whole thing was,” Rebecca said. “He told me to report back. He thought it sounded shady they wanted so many of his subordinates to drop everything to do <em>sniff</em> <em>tests</em>.”</p><p>“I heard they had some of the alphas in Central do the same. I don’t know the other omegas who are enlisted, but maybe we should try to get in contact with them. Something was off about this,” she said, keeping her voice low. No one else was around, but she didn’t want to cause trouble for Mustang.</p><p>“I can ask Grumman about it. There are so few women in the military, let alone omegas, and this kind of thing is <em>exactly</em> why. I’m not going to take this lying down.”</p><p>Riza smiled faintly seeing her friend so fired up with omega pride. This time Riza shared that pride, just a little. It had been fun bullshitting every answer the idiot doctor had asked during their last test. And the doctor would never be able to prove it because each omega was different. Compared to Mustang, the scents were bitter and stale, nothing like the rich spiciness she favored.</p><p>Pleased with her small rebellion, Riza returned to the office, hoping to put a few things together before she left for the day. It was late enough the others had all left, so Riza couldn’t ask if Mustang or Havoc had come and gone already. She rummaged through some papers Falman and Breda had put on her desk. She read them over quickly and prepped them for Mustang to sign.</p><p>Clipping the papers together, she opened Mustang’s office door to place them on his desk.</p><p>Instead, the papers fluttered to the floor from her hands as she was blasted with the irresistible scent of her alpha. She stumbled as the pheromones zapped through her body with dizzying momentum. Gasping in shock, she realized she was starting to go into heat again.</p><p>In seconds she broke out in a sweat, feeling enflamed from the inside out, followed by a gush of slick she couldn’t hold back.</p><p>No, she wasn’t <em>going</em> <em>into</em> heat. It had already begun.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>It was like Riza’s first heat all over again. Unprepared. Terrifying. Humiliating.</p><p>She was curled up in a ball under Mustang’s desk, hiding like a skittish kitten. Any vestiges of the sniper known as the Hawk’s Eye had given way to nature. Years of denying what she was had caught up to her, just like Dr. Renzetti had theorized.</p><p>Now she was trapped at headquarters with no way to leave without assistance. She couldn’t walk all the way home like this. She wanted to call Rebecca, but every time her hand reached for the phone on the desk, her omega side asserted itself.</p><p>
  <em>No. Wait for alpha. Alpha will help.</em>
</p><p>Riza tried three times to fight back her instincts, and three times failed miserably. She was beginning to accept she would spend her heat here until someone found her in the morning, when there was a knock on the door.</p><p>She sat up, her useless hindbrain hoping it was <em>alpha</em>.</p><p>“Hawkeye?” It was just Havoc. The disappointment would have brought her to her knees if she wasn’t already on the floor. Worse, she almost reached for the gun at her hip, feeling defensive and hostile, though logically she knew he wasn’t a threat.</p><p>“Hawkeye,” he repeated. “Are you okay?”</p><p>“Put on your blocker,” she finally called out. She didn’t want to be stuck here all night, and Havoc could call Rebecca…</p><p>“I just put it on. Can I come in?”</p><p>“Keep your distance,” she warned.</p><p>The door opened slowly. He flicked on the light before he came around the desk.</p><p>“How—how did this happen?”</p><p>“Breakthrough heat,” she said through clenched teeth.</p><p>“No shit.” He floundered, eyes darting anywhere but at her. “Should I find Rebecca? She could take you home.”</p><p>“…I can’t seem to make myself leave <em>alpha’s</em> office,” Riza muttered, covering her face in shame. The words hung in the air. Havoc knew who <em>alpha</em> was to Riza. It was painfully obvious when she was holed up in Mustang’s office.</p><p> “I can go get him,” Havoc said, looking ready to bolt. “He’s still there. They wanted to ask him about his secret to self-restraint or something. He was threatening to burn the docs alive when I left.”</p><p>“I don’t—I don’t want him to say no,” she said. She was a pitiful omega.</p><p>Havoc knelt on the floor, keeping his distance. “Well, you can’t stay here,” he said. “You could put on your blocker—”</p><p>“These keep happening <em>because</em> of the blocker. I’m not supposed to wear it until it’s fixed!” she snapped. “I just—I need to clear my head of his scent.”</p><p>“Do you think you can walk out of here?”</p><p>Riza peered out from under the desk, Havoc was still wearing his blocker, so she smelled nothing but Mustang. <em>Alpha</em>. No, she should stay here and wait for alpha to take care of her. He would knot her so good, everything would feel better, and then she’d give him a baby like a good omega should.</p><p>She covered her face again.</p><p>Her hindbrain was truly taking the reins, and it terrified her how much she relished it. It felt <em>right</em> to give into instinct. And of course alpha would take care of her. He was the perfect alpha. Always had been. If he scented her, there was no way he could resist—</p><p>It was that thought that ultimately shook Riza back to herself. She didn’t want to trap or trick him into helping her.</p><p>She crawled out from under the desk, fighting every instinct to stay and wait. Her limbs were jittery, and she had to lean on the desk to keep from collapsing.</p><p>“You might have to drag me out of here,” she said bitterly. Her feet wouldn’t move another step.</p><p>“I could try an alpha command,” he said, reluctant.</p><p>“Try.”</p><p>“<em>Omega</em>,” he said, authority soaked into the word. “You need to stand up and let me walk you home.”</p><p>Riza tensed at the command, but it was all too easy to throw off the instinct to obey. He wasn’t <em>her</em> alpha.</p><p>But she hung onto the urgency the command had put in her, aware that any second Mustang could return and find her falling apart in his office. He was so kind, he would offer to help her simply to be nice, and she didn’t want that.</p><p>She made it as far as the doorway before her hindbrain roared in protest. <em>Alpha’s scent is here. Wait for alpha</em>.</p><p>She turned and shoved Havoc out of the way, diving under the desk once more.</p><p>“Maybe just—keep him away from here,” she said. “Go take him drinking. Anything. Please, Havoc. I don’t want to hurt him.”</p><p>Havoc squatted down again, face scrunching in sympathy. “Hurt him?”</p><p>“I don’t want to force him to help me.”</p><p>“Force him? Hawkeye, you can’t force an alpha. That’s part of the deal of being an alpha.”</p><p>Her eyes welled up. “I don’t think that’s true.” She thought of young Mustang running up the stairs after dropping off his <em>girlfriend</em>, anxious to help Riza through her first heat because of nothing more than pheromones.</p><p>“Mustang is much better at words than me. He’ll explain—”</p><p>“Havoc! Just go and distract him. Call Rebecca and tell her to come get me. She might know what to do.”</p><p>He sighed. “There’s no reasoning with an omega in heat. I’ll be back,” he said.</p><p>“Thank you,” she said, but he didn’t reply before the door clicked shut.</p><p>She felt a little bad involving Havoc in this, but it was too late. Her body was rioting against her. Already she was worried about the scent of her heat permeating through the room. Mustang would know she’d been in there. Her uniform was soaked with sweat and slick, and she felt so <em>empty</em>. She needed her alpha to take care of her. And no matter how hard she tried, that need was stronger than her desire to leave.</p><p>Her hindbrain wanted to nest, but there was nothing around to make it comfortable, so she ended up curled under his desk. She wanted to go home and nestle into her bed where she at least had Mustang’s glove and jacket still.</p><p>None of it would compare to his office—or the man himself.</p><p>And then she heard his voice.</p><p>“Watch the door. Don’t let anyone inside,” Mustang said. Riza shuddered in fear, even as her omega brain keened in ecstasy and slick rushed out of her. She didn’t dare come out, but she heard the door open and slam shut.</p><p>Riza stamped down her instincts with everything she had.</p><p>“Sir, I told Havoc to keep you away from here,” she said sternly. It took all her strength not to call him <em>alpha</em>. His scent drifted to her and another embarrassing gush slipped out of her. She took several big gulps of air, the scent flooding her system. It was so, so good. Even better than he usually smelled. She wanted to be coated in that rich, heady scent.</p><p>“To be fair, he said as much, but he also said you were…” She could only hear him inhale. He fell to his knees in front of her, breathing in deeply. The delicious scent was stronger with proximity.</p><p>“Alpha,” she whispered.</p><p>“Do you—do you want me to ask?” His voice deepened and his scent spiked, although with his blocker on, she couldn’t read anything from it.</p><p>Riza couldn’t look at him, huddled under his desk and so aroused she might burst. “I don’t want you to feel obligated. I can do this on my own.”</p><p>“But you don’t have to.” He inched closer. “If there’s—what about that asshole alpha Breda set you up with?”</p><p>“I don’t want him.”</p><p>“Who <em>do</em> you want?”</p><p>She finally looked up at him. His irises were pitch black, and he was crouched like he wanted to lunge at her.</p><p>“Isn’t it obvious?”</p><p>“I…I need to hear it, <em>omega</em>.”</p><p>She sighed. “It doesn’t matter. I just—I don’t want to trick you into doing something you don’t really want to do.”</p><p>He growled. “Don’t tell me what I want. I didn’t want to force <em>you</em>—”</p><p>“I’m too stubborn to be forced. And I <em>can</em> say no, alpha.”</p><p>He stared, anger evaporating. “I love it when you call me that.”</p><p>“<em>Alpha</em>.”</p><p>“You want me to ask you?”</p><p>She licked her lips, warring with herself one last time.</p><p>“Yes. If you—if you really want to.”</p><p>“Omega, do you want me to see you through this heat? However long it lasts?” His gruff voice promised everything she’d ever wanted.</p><p>Riza’s whole body vibrated as both halves of her were at last in full agreement.</p><p>“Yes, alpha, please.”</p><p>His smile was somehow both smug and relieved as he put a hand on her cheek.</p><p>“I’m going to take care of you. But first, sweetheart, we need to get out of the office.”</p><p>She pulled on his lapels until he was close enough for her to kiss. And then she did. His lips were warm and dry, but she licked at them, feasting on the taste of him. It was exactly like his scent only infinitely better. She could do this forever if her body weren’t demanding more, more, more.</p><p>“Please,” she breathed, hands digging through his hair to hold him tightly to her as she wriggled into his lap, legs clamped around his hips.</p><p>“Omega, we can’t do this here.” He let out an animalistic, strangled noise when she ground down on his erection.</p><p>“I know,” she said, biting down on her lip to try and restrain her hindbrain, only this time she didn’t want to. She pressed her nose to his neck, inhaling deeply. Each breath was like a hit of a drug, cascading through her body in rapturous waves.</p><p>“Havoc’s outside. He also got Catalina to help. I think we can get to my car without being noticed…much.” An omega in heat at headquarters would certainly call attention, but given the late hour, most would have gone home.</p><p>“It’s going to take so long—”</p><p>“It won’t be much longer,” he said. “You’ve been so patient, omega. Such a good girl.”</p><p>The praise went straight to her core, and her walls clenched down, hard. She had always taken a little too much pleasure from Mustang’s compliments, and it seemed when he was leaning into his alpha designation, he turned her into jelly.</p><p>With that motivation, and with her alpha right beside her, she was able to rise above her instincts enough to walk out of the office on unsteady legs.</p><p>Havoc wore a shit-eating grin when she and Mustang emerged, but Havoc knew better than to say anything, and stood at a polite distance.</p><p> Mustang kept a hand under her uniform coat, up against her shirt at the small of her back as they followed Havoc out of the building, and when they reached a side door Rebecca was waiting with Mustang’s car.</p><p>“I could drive you home,” Rebecca said. She raised an eyebrow. “Or the colonel could.”</p><p>“I’m good to drive,” Mustang said, opening the passenger door for Riza.</p><p>“Sir, can we move quicker, please?” she asked, her voice coming out more like a whine than she wanted, as she felt the telltale cramps beginning, her body clamping down on a nonexistent knot.</p><p>Mustang took his blue coat off and draped it across her.</p><p>“Rest now, omega,” he said, and the command washed over her, causing her tense muscles to relax.</p><p>Rebecca leaned into the open window as Mustang booked it around to the driver’s seat.</p><p>“Are you okay?” she asked.</p><p>Riza nodded.</p><p>“Then go get laid,” Rebecca said. “We’ll cover for you guys.”</p><p>“Thank you. Tell Havoc I still might kill him when I get back.”</p><p>With those parting words, Mustang jerked the car into drive. For every bit of her that had relaxed at his presence, he seemed to have absorbed her need, his hands tight on the wheel, eyes flitting to check on her every other minute.</p><p>“Do you need anything?” he asked.</p><p>“Can I touch you?”</p><p>“You never need to ask. But I meant food, supplies, or anything for your apartment?”</p><p>Riza wilted, even as she squirmed closer to him in the car. He automatically put his arm around her.</p><p>“You didn’t want to go to your place?” she asked.</p><p>“I thought you’d be more comfortable at your place. And—” He inhaled shakily. “It’s closer.”</p><p>“Mhmm,” she murmured. “Don’t say things like that or your car is going to be a mess.” She was so ready and wet, she’d usually be embarrassed, but if she was going to take an alpha, it was exactly what she needed to be.</p><p>“Fuck, you already smell like pure sex.”</p><p>She daringly ran her hand to his neck, where she found the chain of his blocker.</p><p>“Are you going to take this off? I want to be able to properly scent you, too.”</p><p>“It takes an hour to wear off.”</p><p>“I know. That’s why you should take it off now.”</p><p>He groaned. “Then take it off.”</p><p>With more touching than necessary, she slipped it over his head, and put it in the pocket of his jacket draped across her.</p><p>“Your hand is on my thigh,” he said after a beat, like he couldn’t believe it was there.</p><p>“Sorry,” she said, squeezing him and sliding her hand higher.</p><p>The car swerved dangerously. She returned her hand to safer territory.</p><p>“I’m pretty sure my alpha brain is taking over, and I’m going to start saying—a lot of things.”</p><p>“I do that too.” She sighed into his shoulder. “It’s nice to have someone understand that.”</p><p>“I haven’t had to rut that many times, but I definitely will during this.”</p><p> “Alphas don’t always go into rut when—”</p><p>He laughed thickly. “Oh, I’m halfway there already. It’s going to happen.”</p><p>A thrill of lust tore through her.</p><p>“You don’t…mind, do you?” he asked, suddenly sounding uncertain.</p><p>“No. I’d rather this be something we go through together. It will be a lot of firsts for me when it comes to doing anything during a heat.” She could almost feel her temperature rising at the thought of her heat, but with her alpha there, promising to take care of her... Her instincts quieted, and she could ignore the cramping with his scent heavy in her nose.</p><p>“Have you really never let anyone help you before?”</p><p>“Just you—that first time.”</p><p>“That hardly counts.”</p><p>“So you don’t think you helped me back then?” She waited, knowing he might see it differently now.</p><p>He sighed. “It was the most innocent heat I’ve ever heard of any alpha helping with.”</p><p>“Hmm, probably.” She paused. “So it was really—just an innocent thing for you?”</p><p>“Yes,” he said firmly. “I think it was something to do with what you wanted. When my blocker is off, I’ve caught whiffs of other omegas in heat, and while they’ve never called to me the ways yours did, I knew they wanted sex. Yours was somehow the most compelling scent I’d ever encountered and yet I don’t think I could have gotten hard if I’d tried. I knew it wasn’t what you wanted, and my hindbrain was determined to provide for you however else I could.”</p><p>“You were so sweet. I knew you would help without overstepping or taking advantage.”</p><p>“I would never. Why do you think I’ve kept silent all this time?” He briefly turned to her, lust etched on every feature. Knowing he wanted her so badly only made her more impatient to get home. “I didn’t want to push, even though I knew no omega was ever going to appeal to me like you do.”</p><p>“I’ve felt the same way,” she whispered. “Every heat, I thought of you.”</p><p>A moan caught in his throat. “I should have just said something. Thinking of you alone, hurting—”</p><p>“<em>Alpha</em>, it’s fine. You’re going to help me now, right?”</p><p>“Yes, <em>omega</em>.”</p><p>By the time he parked near her apartment, she was sweaty, frustrated, and so wet she’d ended up sitting on his coat to protect his car.</p><p>Riza was grateful it had grown dark outside because while she could tie the coat around her waist, nothing was going to cover the scent of an omega in full blown heat. Hopefully her neighbors wouldn’t be able to identify her.</p><p>While Riza was strung tight, near breaking, Mustang had become eerily calm. He kept an arm possessively around her as they went up the stairs. He surprised her again when they got into her apartment.</p><p>“Go to your bedroom,” he instructed. “Wait for me there.”</p><p>She wanted to stomp her foot like a child.</p><p>“What? Why?”</p><p>“You—both of us—should probably eat something first.”</p><p>Logically, she knew he was right, but her body didn’t care about eating right now when he was so close, finally. She was achy with cramps and need, and why wasn’t he fucking her into the floor already?</p><p>“<em>Go</em>, omega,” he ordered, and this time Riza let the command take hold. She staggered on trembly legs into her room.</p><p>Immediately, she had the urge to nest again, and she was beginning to understand why. It was the presence of a strong, desirable alpha nearby. Her hindbrain was bursting with eagerness to please him, take his knot—now, while she was at her most fertile. Her omega side could not be convinced otherwise, even though she was on a strong birth control injection through the military.</p><p>Soon her pillows were positioned just right, blankets folded precisely, but it still needed something. She went to her closet where she’d hidden Mustang’s glove and jacket. Her simpering hindbrain wanted his scent all over them again—wanted it all over <em>her</em>.</p><p>Another wave of pain and emptiness raged through her, and without putting much thought into it, she began tugging at her clothes. In the haze of heat, she’d forgotten how messy her uniform had become. Her mind floated away for a moment until she was satisfyingly naked in her bed except for Mustang’s jacket wrapped around her. Alpha had told her to wait, so she would wait, even though she was becoming more anxious the longer they were apart.</p><p>A crash thundered through the apartment, and Riza had a flashback to her first heat, Mustang rushing up the stairs. Back then, he had knocked. This time, the door was open. He stumbled inside, panting like he was the one in heat. His irises were pure black, chest heaving, and he groaned loudly when he saw her.</p><p>“I think my blocker’s already wearing off,” he said. His hands shook as he began to unbutton his shirt.</p><p>“Finally,” she said, impatient.</p><p>“I want you naked.”</p><p>Riza rose up from the nest, letting the jacket fall away invitingly. Her heart pounded in her ears as she was bared to him. She felt utterly brittle. Vulnerable and exposed. Her omega side was so painfully eager to please him, but ready to break if he rejected her now.</p><p>“You—” His eyes raked over her, unable to speak.</p><p>Like a panther, he leapt onto the bed, straddling her.</p><p>She inhaled sharply. It hit her like a bolt of lightning, every hair on her body standing on end.</p><p>“Oh. <em>Alpha</em>. You smell so good.” Her whole body arched, grinding up to touch more of him. Her hands found the naked skin of his chest, and she shoved the rest of his shirt out of the way.</p><p>“I didn’t think it was possible for anyone to smell so good,” he said, his mouth finding hers even as he began to undo the fastenings on his pants. “I tried to be good and wait, but your smell is everywhere, omega. Fuck, I need to be inside you right now.” His movements were frenzied, and the feeling echoed in her.</p><p>“Please, <em>yes.</em>” She was on the verge of begging if he didn’t. She’d been so patient, all these years, and finally her alpha was here. Roy was here. She had a primal need for him to rut into her until his smell was saturated with her own. Her whole body was consumed with need for him.</p><p>He shucked his pants down and maneuvered between her legs. She bit down on her lip to keep from crying at the sheer pleasure of just the anticipation.</p><p>His palm caressed over her folds, and this time she did cry out, nails biting into his back.</p><p>“So ready for me,” he said, kissing her again. He spread her thighs wider, the whole length of his body pressed to hers.</p><p>“I can’t wait anymore.” She was going to shatter to pieces if he didn’t hurry.</p><p>The head of his cock rubbed against her clit, then slid down to where she was swollen and dripping onto the bed.</p><p> “Think you can take all of me, sweetheart? Can we work this all the way in, nice and deep?” He nudged forward, stretching her open.</p><p>“Yes,” she moaned. She writhed in an effort to feel more of him, to take all of him inside her, but he secured her hips in place, as powerful as an alpha in rut was said to be. He demanded her acceptance and submission.</p><p>“And you want me to fuck you, right?”</p><p>“More than anything.” He inched forward, eyes locked on hers. Her hindbrain warned her not to look away, to be perfectly still or her alpha might think she didn’t want him.</p><p>“You want my knot, too?”</p><p>“Yes, knot me, <em>please</em>.”</p><p>He retreated a moment, gathering more of her slick onto his erection to ease the way in. With how primed she was, her body was almost too ready for him, contracting and trying to clamp down on the knot that wouldn’t engage until he came.</p><p>And she was too sensitive, submerged in unbearable ecstasy everywhere he touched her.</p><p>“Relax, omega,” he murmured against her lips.</p><p>Her tight muscles loosened at the command, and he partially withdrew one more time before thrusting forward again. Her body gave way to his, allowing him to fill her until he was buried to that sensitive base where his knot would form.</p><p>“Ah, fuck, you feel so good, so perfect. You’re taking it so well.” He kissed her roughly as he began to thrust. Her walls squeezed down on his cock, encouraging her alpha to finish inside her.</p><p>“I love this,” she said, almost delirious. How many heats had she suffered through because she hadn’t wanted to ask? Had been too afraid to be rejected? She’d known a heat could be good, but not this paradise where she was aware of nothing but the two of them, using each other to fulfill what their instincts were created to do.</p><p>“Me too,” he gasped. “Please say we can do this every heat. That you'll never be alone again, never have another alpha but me.”</p><p>“Yes, only you,” she said, kissing him again to show him she meant it. He was it for her. It had taken her a long time to accept that no one was ever going to be good enough for her or her hindbrain except Roy Mustang.</p><p>Then it occurred to her.</p><p>“But only if you don’t help any other omegas.”</p><p>“I’ve never even slept with any omega but you,” he said, unable to stop his steady thrusts, but still sweetly earnest. “I won’t ever. I don’t want anyone but you.”</p><p>Riza knew better to accept anything a man said during sex as written in stone, but she also knew Roy. He meant it. Just as with every fiber in her being she knew she would return that devotion. No more trying to make it work with a nice but bland beta. No more talking herself into seeing a different alpha.</p><p>She lifted her hips, reminding him that he had a job to do, and he began slamming into her faster.</p><p>“I need your knot,” she panted.</p><p>“And I’m going to give it to you. Gonna fill you so much you can’t get away until your stuffed full of my come.”</p><p>“Yes, yes, please!” Without her instincts, she would have been too reticent to ask for these things, but with him fucking her so hard, his hands wandering her body, his mouth kissing everywhere he could reach, she was basking in the rightness of it. Their bodies were made to fit together like this.</p><p>“Would you have let me fuck you in my office?” he whispered in her ear. She convulsed around him, delighting in the filthiness. “You wanted your alpha that bad?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>His answering moan was guttural and went straight to her core. She quivered around his cock, so close to the edge she was going to scream if she didn’t get release soon.</p><p>“You still want my knot?” he asked, and his hips slowed their pace. He wanted to be sure.</p><p>Her heart melted.</p><p>“Are you sure you want to knot me?” she replied.</p><p>“Fuck. Yes. Been dreaming about it.” His pulled back and shoved into her again, and she felt how different he was at the base. Larger.</p><p>Her eyes widened, so <em>ready</em> but still a little apprehensive. Her hindbrain took over.</p><p>“Please, alpha,” she said, and her hands reached down to the taut muscles of his ass, her legs winding around his legs, attempting to lock him in place. Her omega side was worried he wouldn’t claim her like he should.</p><p>“Good girl, hold onto me. I’m gonna give it to you,” he promised.</p><p>All she could do in response was cling to him and suck in breaths of his scent. It had only grown more intoxicating, and her core relaxed further to take all of him.</p><p>“Wait,” he said, and Riza gave a ferocious growl, afraid he would stop. Instead he held her to him and rolled so that she was on top, but he was still setting the pace, thrusting more and more shallowly as his knot grew.</p><p>She was vaguely aware that she had started babbling, begging for his knot, asking for come and possibly a baby, but it was all nonsense coming from her omega brain. Just as lost, Roy promised to give her all those things like he was taking an oath to die for her.</p><p>“Whatever you want, sweetheart,” he promised.</p><p>Then he grabbed her thighs, held her against him and kissed her with bruising force. His knot expanded and stretched her, and she cried out as it pushed her over the edge, her body tightening down on him as she arched and trembled with pleasure.</p><p>She rested her head on his chest, both of them heaving. While with other lovers she might have climbed off, her hindbrain purred and settled down to wait. For once during her heat, she was perfectly content.</p><p>Beneath her, Roy had one arm covering his eyes. His hips bucked once, and she felt another surge of come stream inside her. Her inner walls fluttered greedily, wanting all of it. She had known knots produced several additional orgasms, far more than a beta could do, but she was pleasantly shocked by the strength of it.</p><p>“Sorry, it just keeps—ah, fuck,” he said, voice cracking as another warm rush filled her. He was so far gone he was near tears.</p><p>She remembered him saying the alpha could feel vulnerable too. She understood now what he meant. The rush of hormones was overpowering.</p><p>“I like it, alpha,” she said, adjusting her legs. She also realized why he had flipped them at the last minute. It was a little more comfortable for her without his weight on top of her.</p><p>“I can’t believe you're letting me do this,” he said, still hiding under his arm.</p><p>She pressed a kiss to his chest. “I wanted this so bad my heats went into overdrive trying to—entice you. Or that’s what my doctor thinks.”</p><p>“What? Explain.” And he finally showed his eyes, a little watery still. In contrast, his hips bucked again, lifting her off the bed with the force</p><p>“The doctor said I was reacting to you. My omega side wanted to attract…an appealing alpha.” She ignored his smug grin. “It got so bad the blocker wasn’t helping regulate my heats anymore.”</p><p>“I’m sorry I didn’t ask,” he said, kissing her shoulder. “I just didn’t want to put you in a compromising position as my subordinate. And I thought <em>you’d</em> ask if you really wanted me. You’re…so strong and confident.”</p><p>“I like to think I’m strong and confident, but my heats are one of the things I’m not very confident about.” She sighed, tracing a finger down his abs. “Without our blockers…this is pretty intense, isn’t it? You wear yours less than me, so I wondered…”</p><p>“It’s insanely intense. I’ve never felt so tempted by an omega before. I probably made a mess of your kitchen because it felt like a magnet was pulling me to you. I couldn’t—I couldn’t fight it.” He groaned and ground up into her again. “There’s a reason I’ve always worn it around you.”</p><p>She smiled and looked away shyly. “Really?”</p><p>“You’ve always smelled incredible with your blocker. I was a goner without it.” He stroked up and down her back, fingers catching on scars. “And here for so long I thought it was all on my side.”</p><p>“Definitely not.” She’d joined the military for Roy. He’d probably had her heart since before she presented. After everything they’d gone through, he was still the only one she could ever imagine herself loving for the rest of her life.</p><p>They lay together, occasionally rocking together, milking the last of the pleasure from his knot, and just when it was finally softening again, he noticed something.</p><p>“Is this my jacket? And one of my <em>gloves</em>?” He somehow sounded both amused and incredibly aroused.</p><p>Riza was tipping back into her hindbrain enough that she wasn’t bothered by him finding it. A small part of her knew that once her heat was over, she would never live this down.</p><p>“I needed the smell. Havoc and Rebecca helped steal the glove.”</p><p>“And my jacket.” He was getting hard all over again, and her body rose to meet the crash of pheromones he released. “From that night at the bar?”</p><p>She wiggled on him, beginning to rock. “The scent triggered my heat.”</p><p>He rolled them again so she was on her back. He grasped her wrists in one hand.</p><p>“You smelled so sinful that night. I should have known. I was distracted trying to get you to ask me for help. You were talking about heats and never having anyone—I thought you were signaling I shouldn’t ask. I thought I was dropping too many hints…”</p><p>“I said you were a good alpha. That you were perfect.” She remembered it clearly. “I called you alpha.” She’d dropped hints, too.</p><p>“I know. My sweet, perfect omega,” he whispered, kissing her before they were lost to the fog of heat again, fucking in earnest.</p><p>It was late by the time a lull came. Riza went to the bathroom to clean herself up when Roy went to tidy up whatever he had done to her kitchen. She put on a robe and ambled in after him and saw he had put together a tray of easy-to-eat foods that wouldn’t go bad if forgotten during her heat.</p><p>He was naked except for the boxers he had haphazardly thrown on, but while she was admiring his form, he turned around with a frown.</p><p>His nostrils flared. “What are you doing out here?”</p><p>“I was hungry,” she said, reaching to grab an almond.</p><p>His hand snuck up under her robe, groping between her thighs. She had wiped away the sticky dried come and slick. He narrowed his eyes in annoyance.</p><p>“You undid all my hard work. I wanted you filled with my come, omega,” he rumbled, backing her into the counter. He was hard already, digging into her abdomen. She’d forgotten that while she was in heat, he was also enduring the rut she'd triggered. His urge to knot would be relentless until he was satisfied.</p><p>“You’ll just have to do it again, alpha,” she challenged coyly. His scent spiked, thickening in the air.</p><p>He hoisted her up onto the counter, her robe protecting her from the cold edges, and within seconds his mouth was licking up to her clit, sucking and stroking it with his tongue. So sensitive from his earlier attentions, it was only a few minutes before she was yanking his hair and moaning as she orgasmed.</p><p>He kissed his way up to her breasts before reaching his destination for a proper kiss. Her body began to ache for him again, needing more than release to satisfy her hindbrain. Her alpha felt the same. He swept her off the counter, and for a moment she thought he was going to return to her room. He shoved her robe off and guided her forward until her breasts were pressed against a cleared part of the counter.</p><p>“<em>Alpha</em>. What about the nest—”</p><p>“We’ll get there,” he assured her, even as he began working his cock inside her again. He kissed across the scar closest to her shoulder. “I would’ve never guessed you were the nesting type of omega.”</p><p>She sighed, resting her head on her arms as he bottomed out inside her and began to thrust. He was taking care of her. She could relax and enjoy it. This heat was already a thousand times better than any other she’d had before.</p><p>“I only nest when I can scent you,” she admitted.</p><p>“Like that first one? When you stole everything off my bed.”</p><p>She flushed. “I <em>needed</em> it.”</p><p>“Like you need me now? Like you need my come inside you?”</p><p>“Yes.” She rocked on her toes, taking him deeper.</p><p>He moaned helplessly and rocked faster, feeding a pleasant flutter in her stomach. His fingers snaked down her belly, back to her clit. Her overstimulated body couldn’t take it. She came again, and this time it was her turn to shed tears as the intensity overcame her. The ground disappeared from beneath her as he held her up by her hips, thrusting harder, knot growing as she squeezed him.</p><p>“Uh—we’ll get stuck—” she said, still breathless from her orgasm, and barely balancing on the counter with her forearms. Her omega side didn’t care if he knotted her in the kitchen against the cold counter, but the rest of her knew she would be more comfortable elsewhere, preferably her nest.</p><p>“I <em>want</em> you stuck here on my cock, omega,” he whispered against her neck, and it sent shivers down her spine. He gently nipped her, and she moaned. Suddenly the kitchen didn’t sound bad at all.</p><p>“Please, alpha.”</p><p>“Please what?”</p><p>“Come in me. Knot me. Here.”</p><p>“In your kitchen? <em>Riza</em>,” he admonished.</p><p>She wiggled back against him at the use of her name. He was toying with her, the bastard, but she also knew he was nearly gone again. Never had he been so <em>demanding</em>.</p><p>“At least turn me around, alpha.” This time she infused her words with the urgency of an omega’s request. Just like an alpha’s command was designed for survival, an omega request drew an alpha from his rut should danger be nearby.</p><p>Roy grumbled, but his thrusts gentled, and he lifted her again, demonstrating the strength of his rut when he was inside her again before her back hit the adjacent wall.</p><p>“Now?” he asked, a little desperate. His dark eyes held hers, once again asking for her permission before he claimed her.</p><p>“<em>Yes</em>.” She clung to his neck as he pounded into her, reveling in him using her body for relief. Her kitchen filled with the sounds of their bodies meeting and then the deep whine that caught in his throat as he came.</p><p>It took a while for him to come out of the rut long enough to sheepishly—and delicately—carry her back to the bed still stuck together, although first she giggled and grabbed the bowl of almonds to take with them.</p><p>“You knot-head,” she said fondly, popping an almond in his mouth.</p><p>“After this time, we really need to hydrate and eat something more substantial.”</p><p>“And then sleep.” She’d probably have to wake him in the night for another round, but she was in better shape than normal.</p><p>“During your next heat you should come to my place,” he said.</p><p>She raised an eyebrow. “You sure?”</p><p>“Yes. I want your scent all over my room. The kitchen, too.”</p><p>“You aren’t worried someone will find out?”</p><p>“As long as we keep it to just your heats, it won’t be a problem. And besides, no one has to know if we keep our blockers on.”</p><p>Only one day every couple of months if her cycle sorted itself out like she hoped. Riza considered it. They would have to discuss it again when they weren’t hopping on pheromones, but she wanted him any way she could have him.</p><p>It went unspoken that a serious relationship was out of the question, but then again, dating had been difficult for them both before all this. How different would it be to actually indulge once in a while?</p><p>“I’ve liked not wearing my blocker more than I thought I would,” she said. “At first…yes, it was awful, but it was nice to be keyed in to my other senses for once.”</p><p>“Do you want to stop wearing it?”</p><p>“Maybe when I’m not at work.”</p><p>“That’s what I do,” he said. “I tried to take it off a few times when you were around, and I almost went into rut.” He sighed in exasperation, but she felt his cock pulse inside her.</p><p>“When was that?”</p><p>“Once when you first came to East City. Then a few months later, just to see if it had been a fluke.”</p><p>“Not a fluke?”</p><p>“No. Whatever we have between us…blockers are no match for it.”</p><p>“They really aren’t. I guess some things can’t be suppressed.” Like her feelings for him. Her instincts had been trying to tell her so since she was ten. Maybe if they hadn’t joined the military, they could have had more than heat sex, but she didn’t want to dwell on that right now.</p><p>The quiet settled over them again, sprawled in her messy bed, content and satisfied at last.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>Riza’s heat lasted three days, as it was supposed to. Both of them were a little sore and tired, but otherwise they shook off the sluggishness of heat with ease. She and Mustang returned to work, his blocker back on, acting as if nothing had changed. Havoc didn’t so much as wink at either of them, which helped Riza forget the fact that he had found her barricaded in Mustang’s office like an animal.</p><p>Their routine returned to normal as the weeks passed.</p><p>“Take this up to Grumman’s office, lieutenant.” <em>Omega</em>. Riza.</p><p>“Yes, sir.” <em>Alpha</em>. Roy.</p><p>Without looking up from her desk, “Don’t forget an umbrella, sir.”</p><p>“Thank you, lieutenant.”</p><p>“You’re attending the budget meeting with accounting without me, lieutenant.”</p><p>“Of course, sir.”</p><p>It was polite. Nothing untoward going on, except Havoc would glance her way as her scent spiked whenever Mustang gave an order to her or called her lieutenant. She wanted his commands, wanted him to obey her requests. Wanted to be alpha and omega.</p><p>But they had goals, and they were more important than something so base as instinct.</p><p>When her next heat came around, she felt the obvious signs within plenty of time. No surprises. The dull ache in her belly, the increased wetness in her underwear. She was flooded with relief…and anticipation.</p><p>She and Mustang had agreed upon a code so they could communicate effectively but privately. Swishing into his office, she knew her scent was spiking because she had his full attention immediately.</p><p>“Sir, did you remember your date with Elizabeth tonight?” she asked.</p><p>He cleared his throat, nostrils flaring.</p><p>“Uh, yes, tonight?”</p><p>He looked down at his calendar where Riza had circled dates innocuously, reminding him it was coming. If he could. Sometimes he had obligations greater than fucking her for three days. It would be easier when she could put her blocker back on. One day wouldn’t raise eyebrows like three did.</p><p>“Yes. Or I could call and cancel for you?”</p><p>“No!” He looked momentarily frantic. “No,” he said more soberly. “I can make it.”</p><p>She bit back a smile. “Great. I also have a request to turn in.” She dropped her heat leave papers on his desk, and he accepted them with a subtle lick of his lips.</p><p>Dismissed, Riza retreated to her desk to finish as much work as she could before she had to leave for Mustang’s apartment. He had been obnoxiously insistent that he wanted her in his bed this time, which meant she had to go home and change into something more discreet before she went over there. She had a key, so the plan was for her to wait for him.</p><p>When she arrived at his apartment, still damp from the shower she’d taken, she barely had a few minutes to set her bag in his room before she heard Mustang unlocking the door. And he must have decided to take his blocker off one last time before they had to start wearing them for her heats because his scent hit her like truck.</p><p>“Sir, you didn’t have to rush over,” she said, hands on her hips as she stomped out. “You had work to do.”</p><p>He grinned, unrepentant. “You’re always lecturing me about being on time.”</p><p>“At <em>work</em>. This is personal time.” Her words came out weaker than intended as he took her hand and pulled her up against him.</p><p>“I didn’t want to miss anything,” he said. “Not when I’ve been looking forward to this for so long.”</p><p>She tried to glare and failed when he began kissing up her neck, making her wonder why she was arguing.</p><p> “My heat hasn’t even started. I said <em>tonight</em> for a reason.”</p><p>“Oh,” he said, lips freezing against her jawline. “I just thought it might be nice to know what it’s like without all the rut and heat brain getting in the way.”</p><p>Her belly tightened. “That might be one of your best reasons for skipping out on work ever.”</p><p>Relaxing, he continued kissing up to her lips, and he held her gently—<em>lovingly</em>. And she had to close her eyes to hold back the tears as it occurred to her he wanted to make love to her, not just give into their instincts. Happiness threatened to burst from her as he nudged her backward to his room.</p><p>“You’re so perfect,” he said between kisses, slipping off their clothes. “So gorgeous.”</p><p>It was just as wonderful as the heat sex, but the frenzy was gone, her head was clear. She could focus on things besides having his knot. Like how he was a little ticklish on his stomach and twitched when her fingernails grazed there, and he really loved her breasts, worshipping them with more care than she’d ever given them herself. She loved the way he groaned when she started kissing down his body, wrapping her lips around him and curling her tongue until he gasped for her to stop before he lost control.</p><p>Then he returned the favor with his fingers and mouth until she shuddered and sighed. Some of the frenzy resurfaced then as he positioned himself on top of her, cock hard and leaking against her opening. He glanced up, reassured by her expression, and pushed inside her slowly.</p><p>“I wish we could do this every day,” he whispered.</p><p>“Me too.” She could never tire of this, of the pleasure, the sweet closeness.</p><p>Afterward, sweaty and sated, he presented her with his stash of extra blankets and she began nesting—naked, per his request. He was equally naked, sitting in a chair in the corner to watch, forbidden from assisting.</p><p>It was…domestic, and her heart thumped happily as she scented his pillow a little excessively. When the nest was finished, she snuggled into it.</p><p>“Your bed is so much softer than mine,” she said, snuggling into the sheets. It was also bigger. And smelled like him.</p><p>“Do you still want my help with your heat, omega?” As if he needed to ask.</p><p>“Yes, alpha. Come here,” she said, curling a finger at him. His smile was contagious. Knowing she’d made him so happy bolstered her own happiness.</p><p>She pulled him on top of her, meeting with a kiss.</p><p>With him by her side, maybe being an omega wasn’t so bad after all.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If you read all of this you deserve a medal!! Comment if you want, even if it's anonymous because you are embarrassed for reading this trash. I will understand!</p><p>Find me on tumblr at poppy-pelican talking about nothing in particular still trying to figure out how to tag things. Once again, I am too lazy to link properly.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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